Jumping the queue is nothing new in Canada

Last week the new broke out that Calgary Flames players, Toronto Raptor and Maple Leaf players, hospital board members in Toronto, and firefighters in Halifax had all "jumped the queue" to get flu shots although none were fell into priority cases. The public has reacted with shock and anger.

People, get used to it. This is Canada's health care system - rationed services and queue jumping. It's been going on for several decades now but no one likes to talk about it. In theory everyone is supposed to be treated the same in our system since ability to pay for services is no longer a factor. Because services are generally limited and must be rationed, priority is supposed to go to those that most urgently need them. But human nature what it is, instead it often comes down to who you know. It goes on all the time. Just some examples:

• A hockey player I coached once tore an ACL in her knee. She was scheduled for surgery to repair it but had to wait almost 8 months. Another parent on the team who was a physician made a call and the wait time was reduced to 8 weeks.
• Another injured player required a MRI. A parent who was a large donor to a hospital made a call and an appointment was arranged in a few days instead of over a month.
• My mother urgently needed to get into a well known geriatric facility. The social worker assigned by the Ministry of Health indicated that this facility had a waiting list of 6-12 months. We happened to know someone who worked at the facility who discovered a bed had just become available in the ward my mother was to have been assigned to. The bed was put on hold. We told the social worker to hurry with the paper work because there was a bed waiting for my mom. She was in it 2 days later.
• My wife need some cosmetic surgery for a cyst on her cheek. Normally it would take a month for an appointment with a plastic surgeon and 3 months for the surgery. I knew a surgeon well so we called him. She surgery was done in a couple of weeks. The surgery was not covered by Medicare but my wife wasn't billed.
  

I could go on and on. If you can't pay to jump the queue then people will use other means to get to the front of the line. Obviously person relationships become more important than money. So when I heard about some hockey players and the family getting the flu shot I just laughed. The little secret about Canadian Medicare was being outed finally.