E-HEALTH

According to BCGEU, the BC government is planning to outsource, to a US company, the operation and maintenance of the mainframe computer servers that contain all provincial documents and e-mails. Does this include your health information?  Just in case it doesn’t, another US company will maintain the provincial health data base.

As early as June 2009 the BC Government will implement its provincial database collection of your personal/medical information.  The website www.optout.ca provides detailed information, information that should scare you.

This site will tell you that the Province has not stated who will have access (although apparently it will include the government), and whether it will be given to third parties.  It does say that the Province used a US-based multi-national company which will be subject to the Patriot Act, allowing the US Government to access this database.

Will it save money?  It’s possible.  Because I’m sure a lot of people, who need medical care, will not access the health care system because of privacy concerns.

A few excerpts from a talk given by Michael Vonn of the BC Civil Liberties Association (Database Nation and Health Privacy):

“And just so you are clear about the scope of the access, the plan is ultimately for a Pan-Canadian e-health record system.  Canada Health InfoWay — which is an organization which receives a lot of money from the federal government, but is not “government” for the purposes of access to information laws, so is completely unaccountable to citizens – exists solely to promote centralized electronic health records, first provincially and ultimately linked so as to be accessible nation-wide.”

“….this is ultimately the thin edge of the wedge.  BC’s electronic health information infrastructure is meant to anchor an integration project called the Information Access Layer, which includes the Integrated Case Management Project. This is a massive information-sharing project meant to encompass the entirety of social services in British Columbia and to link information about us from the Ministries of Employment and Income Assistance, Children and Family Development, Health, Education, Justice and the private sectors contractors for all of the above.  The government has already issued an RFP, (a Request for Proposals) for this project.”

Please read this article in full, plus “So, what the heck is eHealth”, as well as the other articles.  It’s your health, it’s your privacy, or at least it was. You can choose to do nothing and give away your rights or you can choose to try to protect those rights.

 

B.C. NURSES

According to a Vancouver Sun article, by Chad Skelton, September 17, 2008 “BC nurses are being allowed to quietly leave their jobs, even under the cloud of accusations of drug misappropriation, abuse and rank incompetence.”  They have not been formally disciplined , prosecuted or fined and may apply to return to nursing.  No details of their misconduct were made public.  This is another example of the shroud of secrecy the medical system has around its actions.  Also, if hospital staff are not being disciplined for these offences, how likely are they to be disciplined for violating a person’s privacy??

However….An article in the Globe and Mail, by Catherine O’Neill, October 17, 2008, states that Alberta is putting the “often sensitive and private” personal health information online.  I read that Ontario is doing the same but on a limited, trial basis.  So, hospitals certainly don’t mind putting your information online.  How safe do you think that is???  How long before it’s in BC???

 

PHARMACIES

A man, who said that he worked for the computer section of a hospital authority, stated that pharmacies have access to our medical records. He said that you could put a password on your record at the pharmacy so no one in the pharmacies could access your records without this password.  I had heard something very similar last year from a person who I understood to be a pharmacist.  He said it was the way of the future and implied that we had no say in it.

I visited a couple of pharmacies and they denied having access to our medical records.  The people at the pharmacies said that they only have access to the information provided by a person to that individual pharmacy.  I will continue to monitor the situation and find out if it changes.–>

One of things I have noticed, when giving handouts, is the range of people interested in the privacy problem.  The people are not only from all over BC but from other provinces and countries.  People from other provinces expressed an interest in learning if their province had similar problems.

The European’s discuss how the different countries protect people’s privacy.  Some European countries appear to have really good rules for protecting patients privacy.  Many Europeans expressed disappointment that we would be having these privacy problems as they had heard that our medical system was good.

THREATS

One of the things that surprised me, when giving people my handouts in front of the Catholic hospitals, is the number of threats that I have received.  I have not proposed blowing up the hospitals, I have not engaged in civil disobedience, instead I have legally exercised my democratic right to question and to inform people.  Yet, I have received comments such as “Give them what they want or die”; a couple of times I was told that I am probably now in the hospitals records as a troublemaker and that I may be given a very difficult time if I go to the hospital; I have heard comments such as “I hope you never, ever have to use their services” (implying that if I do I will receive substandard or worse “care”).  I have heard quite a number of variations on these threats.  Will my health/life be in danger if I go to one of these hospitals? I don’t know.  However, I do not intend to go to a Catholic hospital again for a number of reasons, nor will I ever again step foot in a Catholic church. 

What concerns me is that not only should an individual expect to receive the same care as everyone else regardless of their beliefs, politics, religion, nationality or because they stand up for what is right, there should not even be a perception that a person would receive inferior care.  

Of course, money will continue to be taken from my pocket to pay the wages of the hospital administrators and staff and otherwise support these hospitals.

I won’t describe the other abuses that have been heaped on me.  But it is telling that these people support the medical/catholic system as is.  I have obviously hit on a very, very sensitive nerve.  I can only wonder why this topic is considered so sacrosanct that these people would do the things they do and say the things they say.

The other side of the coin are the people who have offered their support because they are concerned, even fearful, about who is receiving their personal information.  And they agree that we have the right to know.