Michael Higgins: A doctor's quest to connect patients with private health-care options

National Post

01-06-2025

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'There are lots of rules and regulations and they can be a little complex, but we're trying to make that a little less veiled in secrecy and trying to make it more open and transparent,' said Haffey.
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Surgeons on the platform will focus on elective procedures — the surgeries that the health-care system deems non-urgent, but can severely impact a person's life.
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'The most commonly associated procedures are going to be things like joint replacement, hip and shoulders and ankles, gynecological procedures for things like urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse, and non-cancer indications for urologic, ENT, plastics and spinal surgeries,' he said.
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'My efforts are mostly targeted at orthopedic surgeons … just because their wait times are ballooning out of control. In some provinces, they're exceeding two years, which is just insane.'
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Haffey is now including surgeons from other specialties, while avoiding some areas.
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'We decided not to focus on cancer or cardiovascular or vascular limb surgeries, first of all because the public system works really well at getting patients care when it is urgent. People might wait a little longer than they're comfortable with, but generally speaking, the public system is good with those life-threatening indications,' he said.
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The platform has 100 surgeons listed so far, but Haffey hopes to have 500 by the end of the year.
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'I wanted to try fixing the system from the inside. Waiting around for policy changes and for the system to fix itself over the past few decades have proven to be an ineffectual way of going about it,' said Haffey.
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'I just wanted to build a tool that I wish I had and is something that other primary-care physicians can share with their patients and say, 'Just so you know, there's this free tool and it's something that can help explore your options more.' '
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The new platform will probably upset those who see it as another advance of private health care, to the detriment of the universal system.
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But Haffey sees it as a complement to a system in which, all too often, patients see their conditions spiral out of control before they can even see a surgeon.
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