FROM TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL AND NCPA
HEAD: CANADA'S U.S. BABY BOOM
More than 100 Canadian women with high-risk pregnancies have been sent to
United States hospitals over the past year -- in what a doctors' group
attributes to the lack of a national birthing plan, says writer Lisa
Priest.
The problem has peaked, with British Columbia and Ontario each sending a
record number of women to U.S. neonatal intensive care units (NICUs):
Specifically, 80 women from British Columbia (B.C.) have been sent to U.S.
hospitals since April 1, 2007. In Ontario, 28 have been sent since January
of 2007, according to figures from the respective health ministries.
Neonatologists are very stretched right now, we're so stretched, it's kind
of dangerous, says Adre Lalonde, vice-president of the Society of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada.
For instance:
Canada saw its world infant mortality rank plummet to 25th place in 2005
for
sixth place in 1990, according to the Organization for Economic
Co-operation
and Development.
Specifically, Canada's infant mortality rate of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live
births is tied with Estonia's and more than double Sweden's rate of 2.4.
In 2007, 3,269 babies were born prematurely, up from 3,137 in 2006,
according to the B.C. Vital Statistics Agency.
Though British Columbia is adding NICU beds, Health Minister George
Abbott,
said that in itself is not the answer. When extra NICU beds were added in
Victoria, it took about a year before they were operational due to the
difficulty in recruiting a neonatologist.
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If our little frostbitten brothers in the great white north would stop
chewing the gov't blubber, they'd realize the free market is the only long
term solution to their healthcare problems.
Dionysus
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