Union president Joan Jessome says the clinics violate the principles of universality and accessibility spelled out in the Canadian Health Act and in the provincial Hospitals Act and Health Services and Insurance Act.
The Canadian Diagnostics Centre, a private clinic about to open in Clayton Park, plans to charge $725 for MRI scans. Two other clinics, in Mount Uniacke and Woodlawn, charge a $10 fee for blood collection.
Jessome, who spoke at a news conference with union lawyer Kim Turner, said the province is ignoring its legal and moral responsibility to protect medicare in Nova Scotia.
Jessome released a letter to Health Minister Jamie Muir telling him that the private MRI facility and the fee-based blood collection clinics violate federal and provincial law.
She has requested an urgent meeting with Muir to discuss the legality of for-fee health services in Nova Scotia.
Turner says the government's own documentation classes the MRI clinic as a hospital. Jamie Muir, the provincial health minister, disputes the claim. (4 July 2002)