The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by a Vancouver surgeon who challenged that a lower court erred in judgement in rejecting his claim that patients have the charter right to pay for private medical care when wait times in the public system are too long.
In a ruling on July 15, Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice David Harris wrote that while some patient’s rights to security of the person were impeded by the lengthy wait times, which prevented them from timely access to medical treatment, “this deprivation accorded with the principles of fundamental justice.”
