Talkin' Bout My Reservation.....

WhoseOxAreWeGoringThisTime?
GordCo

Whew!

Sure glad to hear that British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell has decided that Vancouver doctor Brian Montgomery's plan to charge his patient's a reservation fee is illegal.

CBC News Jan 17/06

A Vancouver clinic's plan to charge patients an extra fee to book specific appointments may be inappropriate, says the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C.

The Mainland Medical and Laser Clinic has said it wants to start charging $30 for an appointment starting in March.

But college registrar Dr. Morris Van Andel met the clinic's owner, Dr. Brian Montgomery, on Tuesday and told him that that's not a good idea.

"We had a good discussion with him, and we expressed our concern to him and advised him to think about proceeding with this plan carefully, to seek advice if he so felt. But we indicated to him that in our opinion, an appointment was not an item that should have a fee attached to it."

Van Andel also said doctors have a responsibility to provide fair access to all patients, and the clinic's appointment fees could leave some patients behind.

"Our concern is that it places an unreasonable obstacle for a patient to access their physician."

Premier Gordon Campbell has said the fee plan is illegal.

Which is all well and good, but it does have us wondering where the good doctor might have gotten his brilliant idea to boost his income with an arbitrary reservation fee that falls outside the normal regulatory process?

Hmmmm....

Let's see.....

How about, perhaps, Mr. Campbell himself, via one of his favorite corporate capos, Mr. David Hahn, and their little experiment in public asset debasement known as B.C. Ferries.

Here's the scoop provided to us by Paul Willcocks:

"BC Ferries is taking advantage of a large loophole left by the government when it restructured the operation.

The Ferries Commissioner is charged with regulating BC Ferries' rates and service to protect the public interest, recognizing government has given up control and the corporation has a monopoly.

But the legislation didn't include reservation fe(e)s in the charges subject to regulatory review."


Yup, that's the ticket, errrr.....unregulatable 'reservation fee'.

And just like Dr. Montgomery's ridiculous, self-serving bleating this morning on the Puffmaster Flash's little radio show, Mr. Hahn's and/or his spokesthingy Deborah Marshall's arguments about 'freedom of choice' is pure codswallop when the overwhelming majority of spots in the Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay waiting rooms/terminals are reserved for those with reservable reservations.

So, again, when it comes to the laser-wielder, just whose idea was this, really?


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