Embracing Hedy the person, not Hedy the quote
By Dale Bass - Kamloops This Week - March 07, 2008
Hedy Fry is one intelligent, articulate, determined woman.
And yes, that fact surprised me, too.
But perhaps it was unfair to judge the Liberal MP from Vancouver Centre solely by her inane remarks made almost seven years ago, when, on March 21, 2001, she gave her “burning crosses in Prince George" speech.
The woman who met with KTW during a recent trip to Kamloops is so much more than that regrettable moment.
And, to be fair, is there a politician in the country who has never said anything ridiculous and then wanted to erase the moment from history?
During a conversation that was obviously going longer than her executive assistant wanted — he pointedly stood by the door for quite some time while Fry continued talking — the one-time wannabe Liberal leader let loose on the health-care system in Canada.
It came about as the result of one simple question: Whatever happened to doctors who would see a sick patient the same day the patient called?
Instead, with many doctors, one almost has to plan the sickness to book an appointment that likely won’t be scheduled for days.
If you can’t wait, then go to a clinic or the hospital emergency room.
It just doesn’t seem right.
As a family physician herself, Fry agrees, noting that at least five million Canadians don’t have a doctor. Tens of thousands more are on long waitlists and every level of government is saying there’s just no more money to be put into the system.
Fry’s got her own views on how to fix the system, ideas she included in a report she prepared when the Liberals were still the governing power.
She says the report has been shelved somewhere by the Conservatives and no one will tell her what’s happening with it.
It’s likely not on Stephen Harper’s summer reading list.
Fry says the shortage of family physicians can be explained by the financial reality a graduating medical student faces.
Along with that MD comes about $150,000 worth of student debt, as well as another $150,000 to set up a practice, so many graduates specialize to make the bigger bucks to pay off that debt quicker.
The cost of a medical degree also puts it out of reach for pretty much anyone who comes from a low-income family.
Some communities are offering to pay off medical student loans if the graduating doctors will come to their towns, Fry says, but even then, there’s no guarantee anyone will stay.
She’d like to see a multi-directional solution, with a system to allow doctors from other countries to gain experience in the Canadian medical culture in clinics for a while, and then letting them start their own practices.
Don’t restrict it to doctors, however, but include other health-care practitioners, too.
Fry sees another solution in the preamble to the Health Act — medicare should pay for medically necessary services, but if you’re one of those patients who doctor-shops, or insists on a third and fourth opinion, she thinks you should pay for the extra use of the system.
The social democrat in me sees that as deplorable, but then I think of a friend who for years went from doctor to doctor to doctor, gathering up prescriptions and convincing herself she had every ailment possible.
What kind of needless cost did she create?
It’s a difficult issue to reconcile.
But not for Fry.
It makes sense — as does Hedy, when we pay attention to the whole person, rather than the one part that made one headline years ago.
