Why is our health care system and government broken?

Public

Dr. Zafar Essak, MD - Vancouver, BC - October 6, 2024

I decided to write a series of posts covering different aspects of our health care system and government to help us apply our thinking to the problems and solutions. We need a change in our expectations of professional leaders, government leaders and how government works if we are to save our publicly funded health care system and our democratic rights.

Part 1. How health care administration over took funding for doctors.

Part 2. Early closure of debate erodes our parliamentary democracy.

Part 3. The importance of open dialog and informed consent.

Part 4. No consent called "passive consent" as BC elementary and high school students are presented survey questionnaires.

Stay tuned for more to come.

Part 1. How health care administration over took funding for doctors.

Every day we hear reports that our health care system is broken and having difficulty keeping up with the health needs of patients and people throughout BC and across the country.

Politicians say it’s a lot of unexpected circumstances, they’re doing the best that can be done; they're following what the experts are telling them, and we should trust them to carry on with it.

Are these unexpected circumstances or are they foreseeable outcomes?

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Part 2. Early closure of debate erodes our parliamentary democracy.

Early closure of debate is important to health care because it was used by the current BC NDP government to push through the Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA) in 2022, with changes to the licensing of doctors and other health care professionals.(1) Early closure of debate was also used by the BC NDP to push through three additional far reaching pieces of legislation.

So, what is early closure of debate and why does it matter?

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Part 3. The importance of open dialog and informed consent.

Open dialog is the foundation for informed consent and trust.

We expect informed consent to be upheld in all interactions with medical and health professionals along with other professionals and individuals in our lives including teachers, lawyers, paramedics and others.

Would we allow medical treatments to be given to us and our children without our informed consent?

For informed consent we need open dialog, assuring that the interaction is entirely open and transparent and the provider conducts themselves confidentially and ethically without conflict of interest. Information must not be withheld, delayed or obscured. This is the foundation of trust.

Have our political leaders, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and BC NDP Premier David Eby, failed to uphold the importance of open dialog and informed consent?

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Part 4. No consent called "passive consent" as BC elementary and high school students are presented survey questionnaires.

First, you may not even realize that in BC elementary and high schools, students of all ages (early years, middle years and youth) have been presented with surveys to complete. This has been done without requiring parental consent or even awareness.

The BC NDP Government refers to it as "passive consent". Teachers are providing children with tablet computers to answer questions about themselves, their families and others living in the household. Children who are reluctant and don’t know if they should do this are reassured it is all fine, they can trust this is all okay.

Some children may be too young to realize that it’s like talking to strangers. These days we should all know the dangers are worse with computers online. So, why would we be teaching young children to reveal information into a computer? (1)

Furthermore, who is PopDataBC and what do they do? Who funds it?

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