THE DEMOCRATS' HEALTH PLAN:

Surgery crisis looming: Anesthetists leave for better money, hours at clinics. Operating room closings will increase cancer waiting lists (PATRICIA ORWEN, Dec. 1, 2002, Toronto Sun)

The lure of big bucks from private cosmetic-surgery clinics could force hospitals, already scrambling for anesthetists, to close another four downtown operating rooms.

The looming crisis - expected to hit in January - will increase surgery waiting lists, especially in cancer treatment where the average wait is already 54 days.

"We're closing our operating rooms because we don't have enough anesthetists," says Dr. Jonathan Irish, chief of surgical oncology at the University Health Network. "But I can tell you every OR in cosmetic practices will be running full tilt past 5 o'clock and probably a good part of the night. ..."

The situation can only get worse because the province has refused to increase funding to the three hospitals that make up the University Health Network, the largest academic health sciences centre in Canada.

"Why would anesthetists want to come work for us when they can work less hours and make twice as much somewhere else?" asks Dr. David Bevan, chief of anesthesiology for those three teaching hospitals--Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western. They have already closed three of their 31 operating rooms.

That's Al Gore's vision of our future. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 1, 2002 7:01 AM