Poll suggests appetite for more private health care; ER doc says it’s not the way

More than half of those who responded to a new poll said they wanted “greater access to health-care services supplied by independent providers.”

Alberta was one of two provinces that saw the highest support.

Results of the poll, published by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) and Ipsos, were released Thursday.

The results raise the ire of at least one expert—a Medicine Hat-based emergency physician who says the poll is built on “false choice.”

Fifty-six per cent of respondents across Canada expressed support for more private health care.

In Alberta, 65 per cent were for it.

Alberta was topped only by Quebec at 67 per cent.

Alberta and Quebec also saw 81 per cent of respondents say they “consider their health-care system to be overly bureaucratic.”

Overall, 76 per cent of respondents said they felt that way.

MEI economist Emmanuelle Faubert said governments “should not stubbornly cling to what isn’t working.”

She said governments “should instead look at what does work elsewhere and adopt it here.”

“Canadians clearly want change, and policymakers should listen to them,” Faubert said in a release alongside the poll results.

Paul Parks, the ER doctor out of Medicine Hat, told CTV News, “You know the answer’s going to be, ‘Everybody wants more access.’”

“Then you ask them if they want more private access when they don’t know what that means,” he said.

Parks has taken to social media in recent days, explaining why he feels more private health care alongside public service ultimately doesn’t work.

On X, he described a finite pool of staff facing high and ever-increasing demand.

He described the addition of a private stream as creating still even more demand.

“I cannot get a technologist in my hospital to do an ultrasound for someone that’s dying right now,” Parks told CTV News.

“Should we fix that? One hundred per cent.

“Will driving all our ultrasound technologists out to the private clinics outside of the hospitals help me even one iota for that dying patient on my night shift in the emergency department? It will not help at all.”

If there’s no one available to do the things, Parks said, a million dollars in the bank “is not going to save you.”

Thursday’s poll results also show 72 per cent of respondents “believe private facilities can provide health-care services faster than hospitals run by the government.”

They show 72 per cent “support the adoption of a mixed universal health system, as exists in France and Sweden.”

But they show 80 per cent “remain unaware of the French or Swedish health-care models.”

Respondents support care guarantees by 83 per cent.

Sixty per cent “recognize the rate of growth of health-care spending in their province is unsustainable.

And 34 per cent “believe increased spending has improved the state of their province’s health system.”

Ipsos polled “a sample of 1,159 Canadians aged 18 years and over ... between March 26 and 29.”

“Precision of online polls is measured using a credibility interval,” the results state.

“Results are accurate to within plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.”

Faubert said in the release, despite additional spending on health care, “Access problems have persisted, and Canadians know it.”

“It’s time for politicians to recognize that the state of our health-care systems is not explained by a lack of resources, but rather by the rigid and excessively bureaucratic nature of our model,” she said.

Parks told CTV News, “If anything, what this takes home is that governments are not doing very well on access, and we should absolutely improve it, but we should do it in a wise and cost-effective and safe way.”