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1/Among the people the Saudis are withdrawing from Canada are patients getting treatment. Apart from being cruel to its own citizens, this struck me as odd. Canada’s socialized medical system doesn’t usually accept international medical tourists.
2/I got my hands on a report from the Conference Board of Canada called “Should Canada’s Hospitals Open Their Doors to Medical Tourists?” It says that in 2013, medical tourists to Canada maybe spent C$50,000 – basically nothing. So what are Saudis doing in Canadian hospitals?
3/There are none at the UHN – the biggest hospital system in Toronto. But it does have an International Patient Program – for people who can’t get certain treatments in their home country, have ability to pay for it, and the hospital has capacity to do it.
4/Other hospitals, like The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, also have programs like this. So maybe this is where the Saudi patients are.
5/Ronald Labonté is a public health sociologist at the University of Ottawa. His research shows most years, only a dozen Saudi patients come to Canada. At most, there would be “a couple hundred.” Removing them won’t leave a dent in the Canadian medical system, funded by taxpayers
6/The final point? “The only people who will suffer from this vendetta on the part of the Saudi Kingdom are going to be the Saudi patients,” said Professor Labonté.
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