Premier Danny Williams' decision to have the surgery performed at an undisclosed U.S. hospital had critics in Canada and the United States calling it proof of problems in Canada’s health-care system.
Bump
Rumor has it that Havana Hospital was backed up and the undisclosed U.S. hospital was his second choice.
(procedure not available in Canada)
We’re not sure where that part of the title came from , it’s a blatant fabrication , other wise known as BS.
Little need to go to U.S. for heart surgery: MDs
National Post - Wednesday, February 3, 2010
“Virtually all forms of cardiac surgery are looked after in Canada, and I would say extremely well,” said Dr. Chris Feindel, a cardiac surgeon at Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN). “Personally ... I would have my cardiac surgery done in Canada, no matter what resources I had at my disposal.”
In fact, he said, patients from the United States and other countries come to the UHN’s Peter Munk Cardiac Centre for valve repairs, a procedure developed by Toronto surgeons. Meanwhile, the death rate after bypass surgery in Ontario is among the lowest in North America, reports the province’s Cardiac Care Network.
In fact, Newfoundland is able to provide bypasses and other common heart operations at home, but routinely ships patients to Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa for rarer procedures, such as transplants and treatment of congenital heart defects, said Dr. Eric Stone, a St. John’s cardiologist.
There are simply not enough cases of that sort for surgeons in Newfoundland to develop the requisite expertise, he said. In 28 years, though, Dr. Stone said he has never had to refer a patient to the United States.
“What is wrong is to create the impression the Canadian health-care system can’t take care of things,” he said. “To get excited about that makes no sense to me.”
Dr. Feindel said he is aware of only a single non-experimental heart operation not available in Canada: one to repair a rare aneurysm in the part of the aorta descending through the chest. While about 11,000 heart surgeries are carried out in Ontario every year, only one or two patients are sent to Baylor University Hospital in Texas to undergo the complex aorta operation, he said
Canada’s healthcare system is a complete joke, and yes to change doctors etc is not an easy task.
