Hence the Premier of Newfoundland flying to the US to have heart surgery instead of having it done by staff in a hospital in his own province. He knew that it would be terrible politics to jump the queue and get immediate heart surgery just because he was the Premier, so instead of waiting for months on a list, as the citizens of Newfoundland do, he paid for the surgery in the US and was treated immediately.
To offer service in a timely manner means that the entire medical system has to have the slack built into it to push people through with no back-ups in the pipeline. This also means that all of the capacity can't be used at 100% efficiency. To operate at less than 100% efficiency means that you're paying more for those underutilized assets.
British Columbia has a population of 4.4 million and the city of Spokane, WA has a population of 209,000. I have no clue how many hospitals BC has but whatever the number, every single one of those hospitals had their neonatal care units running at full capacity and a small American city had unused space in their neonatal care unit:
At least two premature Canadian babies sent to the United States when no bed was available for them at home are now stable enough to return to a British Columbia hospital. There's only one problem: There are no beds for them.
Consequently, the two infant girls will have to stay in the neonatal intensive-care unit at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., until a bed becomes available in B.C., said Patrice Sweeny, the hospital's assistant manager of the neonatal intensive-care unit.
"Bedline calls us every day," Ms. Sweeny said of the company, bcbedline, which locates emergency- and critical-care beds for B.C. citizens on behalf of doctors. "They have not had a bed yet. We're just waiting. But as soon as they have a bed, we'll send those babies back ... It's just a crisis up there."
Over the past six months, at least 40 patients from three provinces have found themselves smack in the middle of a medical drama. With no neonatal intensive-care beds available for the babies in Canada, provincial government officials were sent scrambling, trying to find care south of the border.
The babies' mothers, who have been sent abroad to Washington, Montana, Michigan and New York, were typically those who went into labour before 32 weeks gestation - at least two months early. Their babies require the highest level of neonatal intensive care, often needing a ventilator to assist breathing.