[van-announce] Demonstrate against Urgent Care Centre - Dec. 1

[Stephanie Smith]

Take the Private Profit out of Medicine
Urgent Action needed to shut down "Urgent Care" (priority treatment for
the wealthy)

     Seventy years ago, in 1936, famed Montreal surgeon Dr. Norman
Bethune founded the Group for the Security of the People's Health to
campaign on behalf of Canadians who could not afford to pay for medical
care. The group published an address by Dr. Bethune, who stated that
"The situation which is confronting Medicine today is a contest of two
forces in Medicine itself. One holds that the important thing is the
maintenance of our vested historical interest, our private property, our
monopoly of health distribution. The other contends that the function of
Medicine is greater than the maintenance of the doctor's position, that
the security of the people's health is our primary duty..."
     "Let us take the private economic profit out of medicine" was
Bethune's position, supported by political leaders like Saskatchewan
premier Tommy Douglas. This was the view which finally prevailed with
the establishment of Medicare as a system based on the Canada Health Act
principles of universality, accessibility, comprehensiveness,
portability, and public administration. In other words, necessary
medical care is to be provided free of charge to all Canadians through a
public system.
     Today those principles are under constant attack by the profiteers
who seek to create a two-tier system, in which the wealthy are first in
line for quick access to all the best medical help, while the rest of us
are left with an increasingly under-funded public system. The motive of
private profit is once again becoming a dominant force.
     The push to impose for-profit health care more advanced in British
Columbia than in any other province, according to the Fraser Institute,
which favours this shift. The opening of the Urgent Care Centre, which
provides emergency treatment for hard cash as part of the False Creek
Surgical Centre, is the latest step towards a two-tier system. This
clinic describes itself as "one of Canada's premier ambulatory surgery
facilities, where clinical excellence is matched by personalized
service. Superior surgical technique and advanced technology is offered
in a unique environment unlike anywhere else."
     Having received their training in Canada's taxpayer-funded public
education system, the physicians and other care-givers in such private
clinics are now using their expertise for their own private benefit,
effectively reducing the level of services available to the public
through the Medicare system.
     The Vancouver Group for the Security of the People's Health demands
that the federal and provincial governments take immediate action to
shut down the False Creek Surgical Centre and the "Urgent Care Centre."
These operations are blatant violations of the Canada Health Act. The
spread of for-profit private medicine must be reversed, before it's too
late. The security of the people, not the wealth of the few, must once
again become the priority!
     We will be holding a peaceful protest picket at the False Creek
Surgical Centre on Friday, December 1. We urge all supporters of
Canada's universal, public Medicare system to join us, and to help put
pressure on governments to take the private profit motive out of health
care.

Demonstrate to defend universal medicare!

Where: False Creek Surgical Centre, 555 West 8th Ave., Vancouver
When: 1-2 pm, Friday, December 1