Updated Sat. Jan. 20 2007 11:26 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A Quebec company is offering to fly Canadian patients fed up with long
waiting lists to Cuba for surgery.
But unlike private health care options in North America, patients can
get the care they need at half the cost.
"We're talking about something in the neighbourhood of half of what it
would cost at a private clinic here and a tenth of what it would cost at
the Mayo Clinic in the United States," said Services Sante International
(Health Services International) spokesperson Alexandre Rheaume.
Cuba, in desperate need of foreign currency, has opened its hospital
doors to foreigners for everything from hip replacements (costing
between $5,000 and $6,000) to eye surgery (costing about $2,000).
High-risk procedures like heart surgery are not available.
Some of Cuba's top doctors are now in Canada, finalizing plans to bring
Canadian patients south.
"We receive patients often from Argentina, Mexico, Jamaica, Bahamas,
even Miami," said Dr. Roberto Rubinos Ruiz, an orthopedic surgeon.
Although the country may be poor, its health care system gets relatively
high marks.
While Cuba's health care isn't perfect, McGill University political
scientist Philip Oxhorn said neither is Canada's system.
"They may not always have the best equipment, but we don't always have
that in Canadian hospitals either, when it comes to equipment," said
Oxhorn. "But in terms of training, in terms of the level of care, no one
would say that it's third world -- just the opposite."
For a $200 fee, Health Services International will send a patient's
medical records to Cuba. The evaluation will be ready within three days.
The surgery, if necessary, will be done within two weeks.
However, Phillipe Coullaird -- Quebec's health minister, himself a
surgeon -- said patients shouldn't be treated by doctors who are so far
away.
"Personally I would never do this, I would never go abroad to have
surgery from a doctor that I would never see or see with a lot of
difficulty afterwards. It's extremely imprudent to do this," he said.
The company says it already has four patients signed up. What it can't
say is what will happen if something goes wrong in Cuba, except that
patients are responsible for their own travel arrangements and insurance.
With a report from CTV's Jed Kahane
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