HOW ODD THAT PEOPLE WOULD BE WILLING TO PAY BIG MONEY FOR WHAT IS SUPPOSEDLY "FREE"!

Plenty of Canadians will do so -- and no prizes for guessing why: It may be "free" but is it readily available?

"As Canada's premiers haggled into the night over the future of Canada's health-care system, three Montreal doctors announced yesterday they are joining the ranks of those opting out of medicare and will open the province's first private emergency medical clinic next month. The clinic will guarantee speedy service to anyone who can pay out of pocket. The doctors will take care of minor emergencies, like fixing a broken finger and stitching a cut, for a $100 fee.

Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard said yesterday that the doctors are free to do as they please, as long as they don't bill the medicare board for their services. Since 2000, 82 Quebec doctors have gone private, no longer billing the Regie de l'assurance-maladie du Quebec for medical services. By comparison, there are 15,267 licensed doctors working within the province's medicare system.

The new private clinic will be far from the standard walk-in 24-hour ER. Patients will have to phone the clinic in advance. If their emergency is deemed too serious, they'll be referred to a hospital. "We will not see more than two or three patients per hour," said Dr. Luc Bessette, who used to work in the ER of St. Luc Hospital. "We don't believe it's possible to give good quality of care if you're not there to listen and to be able to give time to your patients.

The MD-Plus Medical Clinic on Beaumont St., a few blocks south of the Jarry metro station, will open on Oct. 12. It's one of a rising number of private medical facilities that have sprouted across Quebec in the last few years. This week, Cataract MD, a clinic on Rene Levesque Blvd., opened. The two doctors who will be performing cataract surgery privately have also opted out of medicare, as managed by the Regie de l'assurance-maladie du Quebec. That means that the doctors cannot bill the government for medical services, and patients must pay out of pocket....

The MD-Plus clinic will offer a number of services, including checkups and regular follow-up family medical care. The clinic will also be using the resources of a private lab and an adjacent radiology clinic for magnetic resonance imaging. Among the minor emergencies that doctors will take care of are fixing broken fingers, stitching a deep cut, removing a foreign object from an eye and diagnosing abdominal pain.

Bessette said he believes there's a market for his clinic, predicting that up to 3,000 patients will visit it by next year. "If you're talking about minor emergency conditions, if people wait five or six hours in the emergency room and are self-employed and cannot work for five or six hours, it's worth much more than $100 for a medical fee," he said. "For a lot of people, there is a huge cost in waiting in our system. That cost will be relieved from their shoulders. They will make the calculation that it's much cheaper to wait for a medical consultation if they get rapid access to care."

Bessette said he opted out of medicare because the system isn't working. "My colleagues and I decided that we could not criticize the system and be frustrated by it, and still work within it in good conscience."

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