Do these multi-million dollar doctors really need legal aid?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each of the ten doctors pictured above billed Ontario taxpayers more than $3 million in 2017-2018, according to a ground-breaking investigation by the Toronto Star. Kathleen Finlay, founder of the The Center for Patient Protection, was interviewed for the Star series.

Like all Canadian doctors, a large chunk of their liability insurance premium — more than 80 percent — was paid by Canadian taxpayers, too. Last year, Ontario forked over more than $326 million to support the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA), which is the organization that defends doctors against allegations that they harmed patients, including accusations of sexual misconduct. Three hundred million dollars is a lot of healthcare dollars that could be put to better use in an already over-stressed, under-resourced system. The gross income for the average Ontario family doctor is more than $400,000 annually.

What happens with the public money that goes to the CMPA? More often than not, it winds up causing more harm and distress to the patient/taxpayers who are providing it. With a war chest of more than $4.5 billion and a reputation for aggressively defending any doctor accused of wrongdoing with what one Ontario judge called a scorched earth policy, the CMPA represents an almost impossible barrier for ordinary patients and families seeking justice.

If that’s not perverse, I don’t know what is.

Our healthcare system should not do more to protect doctors than the patients they’ve harmed. Kathleen calls the CMPA a Frankenstein-like creation.  It forces patients who already pay as taxpayers for the healthcare system to also pay for the legal defence of the very doctors who harmed them. As she told CTV National News, “If that’s not perverse, I don’t know what is.”

The Center was  among the first to begin the long overdue campaign to end this outdated, unnecessary and offensive legal aid system for doctors.

Kathleen Finlay was interviewed on CTV National News with Sandie Rinaldo for the patient perspective on the CMPA. 

RELATED:

Kathleen Finlay interviewed on CTV National News with Sandie Rinaldo

Do Multi-million Dollar Doctors Really Need Legal Aid?

Our Sys­tem Does More to Pro­tect Doc­tors than the Patients They’ve Harmed

Tax­pay­ers Should Stop Sub­si­diz­ing Doc­tors’ Lia­bil­i­ty Costs

It’s Time for a Shake­up in Our Health­care Com­plaints Sys­tem

Read Kath­leen Finlay’s wide­ly quot­ed arti­cle on the CMPA in The Huff­in­g­ton Post.

The Cen­ter for Patient Pro­tec­tion call for the elim­i­na­tion of tax­pay­er sup­port of the Cana­di­an Med­ical Pro­tec­tive Asso­ci­a­tion cit­ed in Gib­son: Is It Time to Adopt a No‐Fault Scheme to Com­pen­sate Injured Patients? (Uni­ver­si­ty of Ottawa Law Review)