Dear Ms. Breckenridge:

The following letter (email) was sent to us from the Minister of Health, whereby he indicates to us that the Physician Co-op is still under "investigation".  This reassurance by the Minister gave us encouragement that this issue will be addressed properly. 

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for the meeting of April 11th.  We will look forward to seeing the investigative outcome of Dr. Felderhoff's co-op idea of health care provision.  Ian Johnson, Vice Chairperson will be forwarding the earlier information to you on the banning of extra billing from the early 1980's.

The intent and spirit was to eliminate extra billing when visiting a doctor and the negotiated fees would reimburse doctors for many of the "so called" uninsured services.  The 19 delistings in the mid to late 90s went beyond what Nova Scotians expected from their government.  Along with the delistings, we lost almost 2000 beds and thousands of workers, many of them nurses.

Two particular users fees that should be banned are the parking fees charged to patients to access health care facilities for clinic, treatments and testing and ambulance fees which is a great service, if you can afford to pay for it. 

We must look towards the future to bring back the caring and community spirit that Nova Scotians want and expect in relation to our health care.  We are anxious to work with the department to bring the people's ideas, issues and needs to you and to government.  Communication to and from the department will assist in providing the kind of health care we expect.

Thank you again for the meeting and for your interest in our concerns.  We look forward to hearing and meeting you in the future.

Sincerely,

Debbie Kelly, Chairperson

Nova Scotia Citizens' Health Care Network

cc:  Network Organizations

      Canadian Health Coalition

      NDP Health Critic Maureen MacDonald

      Liberal Health Critic Dave Wilson