6 ~ Friday, March 26, 1993 - North Shore News “NEWS VIEWPOINT ealth careless HE CHICKENS have come home -to roost with the recent agreement between hospitals, health-care ‘unions and the provincial NDP govern- ment. For years the unions have attempted - to reduce work-week hours without reduc- ing members’ wages. Under the new agreement they have done so: 37.5 hours becomes 36 hours. With additional wage increases and carly retirement costs built into the agreement, payback time in.the form of a new health-care contract will cost taxpayers an extra $69 million over the next three years. When Health Minister Elizabeth Cull announced the impending closure of Van- couver’s Shaughnessy Hospital as part of ‘the new direction ‘to ‘decentralize health- care services, the decision was applauded in some corners as a bold and decisive move. in the name of a broader social good, here was 2 minister unafraid to upset some allies. | But given the context of the health-care contract, Cull has done nothing but stuff more money into the pockets of those who have provided a. traditional union power base for her party. In the nase. of svoiding labor. strife on the health-care! front, Cull has set a. clear precedent fer all public-sector unions hungering for reduced work weeks without a reduction in pay. We should all be so lucky. fi “LETTER OF THE DAY Another, case of ‘bad science’ ‘ruling us. Dear Editor: not allowed by our hysterical ygen, we are told, but we are not What an inferno in a trash can — when West Vancouver burns a . few fall leaves the B.C. minister of forests is busy ordering several hundred firestorms the size of Hiroshima. -The spring burning is just as smail; why get excited ? There are much more important’ - things to worry about. _media to put things into perspec- tive. Environment Canada says the ozone hole is worse than ever, but do not say that they have only been measuring it for a few years and that they have changed the instruments used for this purpose so that the baseline is not com- parable. Ozone is formed by solar radia- told that during our winter, the _, Solar radiation is so small that the natural attrition of the ozone layer is greater than production so that a spring measurement is looking at a natural low. Scientists do not secure financ- ing by telling us that all is well — we buy insurance freely when we are scared. Ben Ainsworth This is just another case of ‘‘bad science’’ ruling us, because we are Publisher... . Managing Editcr , Associate Editor Sales & Marketing Director, Linda Stewart Comptroller Doug Foot North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and quatified under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ifl of the Excise ' Tax Act, is published ‘each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid. and distributed to every door on the North Shore. Canada Post Canadtan Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions ate welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressec envelope. Peter Speck . .Timathy Renshaw Noel Wright Newsroom V7M 2H4 tion striking the stratospheric ox- Display Advertising Real Estate Advertising 985-6982 Classified Advertising 1199 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C. — North Vancouver Distribution 986-1337 ir) Subscriptions 986-1337 ft Printed on 986-6222 Fax 985-3227 & 10% recycled 985-2131 Administration 985-2131 6 newsprint North Shore managed MEMBER eo OO SN J SDA DIVISION 980-0511 61,582 {average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) Entire contents © 1993 North Shore Free Press Ltd. All rights reserved. RUNAWAY HEALTH-CARE costs have every govern- ment in North America wringing its hands. One iden- tifiable cause is galloping technology — today’s prolifera- tion of sophisticated diagnostic t tests. In B.C. this area is now being probed by the NDP government. A special committee headed by Dr. Miles Kilshaw, a health ministry consultant, is reviewing the use of laboratory tests by doc- tors and patients in order to ‘recommend changes aimed at improving the cost-effectiveness and quality of diagnostic ser- vices.” As you can imagine, the docs — represented dy the B.C. Medical Association — don’t like it one bit. They regard themselves alone as qualified to determine how many tests are necessary or desirable in individual cases. And they tend to err on the generous side. Why not, indeed? When accu- rate — or reputedly accurate —~ tests are available, why risk diagnosing by the seat of your pants? It’s in the patient's best in- terests to be as certain as is iech- nologically possible. And given the North American love of malpractice suits, it’s also in the best interests of doc himself. To lay-folk like your scribe, however, the flip side of these arguments is less reassuring. For starters, it's widely accepted that ‘about 30% of everything doctors do is of little, if. any, value to the patient. Dy definition, tests must come high on that list. Meanwhile, the 1991 B.C, Royal Commission on Health Care revealed that lab billings — now around $140 million annually ‘“— “have risen nearly 60% faster than those for ail other medical services.”” The commissioners also found the increase was far greater than increases in population, age, number of patients treated or general inflation. In short, lab tests are a growth industry — which hardly surprises ‘one, considering that the more tests are devised and promoted, the more they will inevitably be used in order to ‘‘play safe.’’ What we have here is the medical | profession’s version of Parkin- son’s Law. But with a thought-provoking new twist. Roughly 50% of all lab billings came from privately own- ed facilities — all of them owned by DOCTORS, the very people who order the lab tests in the first place. “We believe that this is HITHER AND YON unethical end a potential threat to the quality of health care,”’ said the commissioners, ‘quite apart from its being an obvious incen- tive to escalate test volumes and "© therefore costs. It must be stop- ped. ” It hasn’ t been as yet. But small wonder affected docs are crying havoc over the Kilshaw Commit- tee and its cost-cutting mandate. Wouldn’t YOU, if you were in - danger of losing a licence to print money? eee SCRATCHPAD: Tonight or Saturday at 7:30 p.m. enjoy Shakespeare's hit comedy A Mid- summer Night’ ’s Dream, presented - in a 1960s setting at West Van senior secondary school ...' Gardeners head west to the - Gleneagtes park-and-ride lot Saturday between 8 a.m.and4:°, p.m. for the school rugby team’s big manure sale — call 926-9171 - this evening for further info...” . That leaves plenty of time Satur-: day to take in the St. Andrew’s and St. Stephen’s Giant Flea Market from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in’, the Presbyterian Church Hall, West 27th and Chesterfield, North Van ... And big sound fans . should red-circle Sunday, March / 28, when the West Van Band will - by: playing in the Massed Bands ° Jamboree from 1 to 3 p.m. in. _ West Van senior secondary gym — admission $2. Photo submitted MAN FOR al! seasonings... West Van Mayor Mark Sager and wife Kathy (right) attend a cooking class held by Maureen Goulet (left) of Ambrosia Adventures in Cooking with guest chef Adam Busby of Bishop’ 's Restaurant. :