Manitoba's Minister of Health Theresa Oswald announced on Tuesday that the provincial government would begin covering costs associated with all inter-facility ambulance transfers effective immediately. The estimated cost for this service...$7 million annually.
The Paramedic Association of Manitoba has been arguing the need for consistency within our emergency medical services system. While this announcement doesn't afford any guarantee about the level of service or care that patients will receive, it does address a very serious inconsistency in terms of who pays for medical services that are not available in the community, often as a result of regional or provincial efforts to consolidate services in centers of excellence. In that light this announcement is most appropriate.
But on an even larger scale, perhaps it moves us closer to what we've been suggesting to government for some time now...a province-wide EMS system. If you consider that the provincial government purchases and maintains all ambulances, pays for a provincial communications network, foots the bill for most wage and benefit increases associated with collective bargaining, built and operates a provincial dispatch center and has now waded into the arena of patient billing...they have a fairly significant stake in paramedic services across the province. It only makes sense that if you own the resources, and you want to ensure maximum efficiency of those resources...you have to be able to control them as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment