Patients sit neglected in hospital corridors
                  Ambulances with patients line up in parking lots
                  Hospitals short of 50,000 nurses by 2010

                 OTTAWA -- Hospital emergency wards across
                 Canada, critically short of staff and beds, are turning
                 away sick. Those lucky ones admitted sometimes sit
                 neglected in corridors for hours.

                 In Vancouver, where ambulances with patients line up in
                 parking lots, some nurses have donned black T-shirts to
                 mourn the death of state-funded health care.

                 Part of the current overload can be blamed on a flu
                 epidemic that is also wreaking havoc in Europe.

                 But critics say this should not divert attention from the
                 damage done by deep cuts in health spending since
                 1993, a series of hospital ward closures and a critical
                 shortage of health professionals.

                 They insist wide-scale reform is inevitable and even the
                 government admits the Medicare system -- set up 40
                 years ago to provide free health care for all -- cannot
                 stay the way it is.

                 "The need for significant change is beyond debate. The
                 real challenge is to ensure that any change we pursue
                 does not move us away from the principles of Canada's
                 Medicare," federal Health Minister Allan Rock said.

                 Reforming Medicare is considered dangerous for
                 political health as it is so prized by Canadians.

                 Indeed, the concept of a US-like system where a rich
                 minority enjoys the best care while the poor majority
                 suffers is a powerful weapon for the ruling Liberals to
                 denounce those pushing for radical solutions.

                 The irony is that for all the talk of the dangers posed by
                 the introduction of private health care, Canada has in
                 fact been operating a two-tier system for years.

                 No less than 32 per cent of total health costs are paid
                 for by patients.

                 Payment for drugs, home care, and other treatments,
                 which aren't fully picked up by federal insurance plans
                 have fallen under this category for the last 15 years, said
                 Dr Hugh Scully, president of the Canadian Medical
                 Association (CMA).

                 Official figures show that health-care spending was
                 expected to reach a record C$86 billion (S$98 billion)
                 in 1999, an increase of 5.1 per cent from 1998.

                 The government has also promised to restore the
                 C$11.5 billion it cut from health spending since 1993.

                 But the CMA says this is not enough to overcome future
                 challenges.

                 "We have an increasingly large and ageing population
                 and need advanced technology. We want to see C$1.5
                 billion extra... each year, indexed for inflation," said Dr
                 Scully.

                 "By 2010 we'll be short of 50,000 nurses. There is a
                 desperate shortage of anaesthetists and specialists," he
                 said, blaming cutbacks in funding for medical students.

                 In the meantime, more health-care professionals are
                 moving to the United States to take up well-paid jobs
                 and patients are also going there for treatments.

                 University of Toronto history professor Michael Bliss
                 pointed out that dentists and veterinarians, who in
                 Canada operate in the private sector, had no such
                 trouble.

                 "So we have the absurdity in Canada that you can get
                 faster care for your gum disease than your cancer, and
                 probably more attentive care for your dog than your
                 grandmother," he wrote in the National Post newspaper.
                 -- Reuters

                      Adapted from The Straits Times, 15 Jan 2000.