December
7, 2007 Sikh Driver's
Death Turns Spotlight
on Canada's Health Plan By Gurmukh Singh
Toronto
The death of a Brampton Sikh bus driver in a new hospital allegedly
due to negligence has snowballed into a controversy, with calls for
a thorough probe into it and a P-3 scheme under which the hospital
operates. Brampton is a South Asian-dominated suburb of Toronto.
Harnek Singh Sidhu, 52, who worked as a bus driver with Brampton
Transit, was brought to the emergency wing of the hospital Nov 3
when he complained of a severe stomach pain.
Ten days later, he died of what his family says negligence by the
medical staff. They allege that no doctor came to check Sidhu for 10
hours in the emergency ward.
They say that when they protested against the callous attitude of
the staff, their male members were asked to leave the ward. Only on
Nov 5, when Sidhu's condition further worsened, did they shift him
to the intensive care unit where he stayed on life support systems
till he died.
In the provincial assembly, Ontario Health Minister George
Smitherman rejected the demand of opposition leader Howard Hampton
for a probe into the death as well as the so-called P-3
(public-private partnership) scheme.
Under P-3, Hampton alleged, the private consortium devoted more
money to raising the building, less to staff and patient care.
In fact, the focus of the whole controversy has now shifted from
Sidhu's death to P-3. And this $550-million hospital is the first to
have been built under the scheme in Ontario, which otherwise runs a
public health care system.
Under P-3, worked out between the government and a private
consortium known as the Healthcare Infrastructure Company of Canada,
the latter built the hospital with a contract to run catering,
parking and a whole lot of services for 25 years. The public was to
raise half the cost of $550 million through donations.
Interestingly, Sidhu's family had reportedly contributed about
$25,000 to the hospital.
With critics such as Ontario Health Coalition and Brampton Health
Coalition calling P-3 the negation of Canada's respected public
health care system, the issue will only hot up in the coming days as
South Asians rally to the cause. They have planned a protest rally
at the hospital Sunday, demanding more beds and more doctors.
To defuse the crisis, the hospital management met Sikh community and
gurdwara leaders and the local Punjabi media this week, promising to
address the issue and provide better health care.
Brampton and the neighbouring Mississauga - the two large suburbs of
Toronto -- have a very large concentration of Indians and
Pakistanis. Not surprisingly, the area has four South Asian MPs -
Gurbax Malhi, Navdeep Bains, Ruby Dhalla and Wajid Khan - in the
Canadian House of Commons.
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