Medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is coming to St. Paul’s Hospital, but is it the right approach, or is it doing those who might look to MAiD as an option a disservice in BC?
For those unfamiliar with some changes from the BC government, patients at St. Paul’s Hospital will now have access to MAiD, but it’s not as straightforward as it sounds.
St. Paul’s is a faith-based institution run by Providence Healthcare, a non-profit organization that provides services in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health. It’s also funded by the BC Ministry of Health through your taxpayer dollars.
Daily Hive heard from Dying with Dignity, an organization that defends human rights by advocating for assisted dying rules that respect the Canadian constitution, about how the BC Ministry of Health and Providence Healthcare will handle MAiD for St. Paul’s Hospital patients.
“They are unfairly burdening patients and their families and causing unnecessary suffering.”
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Dying with Dignity says the process could adversely impact some patients and the general understanding of MAiD.
A clinical space next to the hospital that is to be operated by Vancouver Coastal Health will receive patients from Providence Healthcare.
The province calls the new system to provide St. Paul’s patients with MAiD access a patient-centred approach, but Susan Desjardins, a volunteer with Dying with Dignity, disagrees.
“A patient-centred approach would mean that an individual who requests a legally available medical service can receive that service in whatever place they happen to be, whether it’s their home or the hospital,” she said.
Desjardins also had some fascinating numbers regarding followers of Catholicism and their sentiments around MAiD. Surveys commissioned by Dying with Dignity found that nearly identical numbers of followers of Catholicism support MAiD at the same level as average Canadians.
With that in mind, why is Providence Healthcare resistant to allowing MAiD in its healthcare facilities?
“We don’t have to bail out the church.”
In 2022, Scott Harrison’s wife, Christina Bates, received a terminal cancer diagnosis and decided to go through MAiD because of the unbearable pain she was in. Harrison worked as a ministerial advisor to the minister of health over a decade ago and is familiar with the inner workings of the government on this file.
Scott Harrison’s late partner, Christina Bates.
“It felt like there was a horse kicking her side without stopping 24 hours a day.”
There’s a misconception in the public eye that a healthcare professional can prescribe MAiD. That is false. The patient must initiate conversations around MAiD.
He had much to say about Providence Healthcare and the situation at the taxpayer-funded St. Paul’s Hospital.
Near the end of 2022, Bates was in palliative care at St. Paul’s Hospital. Because MAiD isn’t offered at St Paul’s or any Providence Healthcare institution, Bates had to endure a forced transfer to Vancouver General Hospital (VGH).
He also spoke to us about Bates’s room at St. Paul’s Hospital. A large room that could’ve easily fit 15 people in it, where she could’ve comfortably received the MAiD procedure.
Instead, she had to travel to VGH and receive the procedure in a small room in the basement of the doctor’s residence building.
Where Harrison’s partner received her MAiD procedure. (Courtesy of Scott Harrison)
“I have directed VCH to take space next to the hospital and establish a clinical space and care setting for VCH use. This new dedicated clinical space will be established for patients at St. Paul’s Hospital to access compassionate and dignified MAiD services,” said BC Health Minister Adrian Dix.
The space will be completed in August 2024.
While Harrison agrees that being able to be stretchered to a space next door is better than needing to drive to a completely different hospital, he doesn’t think the province is doing enough.
Harrison pulled no punches, saying, “The headline is church gets bailed out by Catholic Health Minister.”
“We don’t have to bail out the church.”
It’s also not for a lack of desire for healthcare professionals who work at hospitals like St. Paul’s. Desjardins tells us that many doctors or nurses would likely be happy to provide those services and that it also inflicts emotional turmoil for some of these professionals to be unable to care for their patients until the very end because of decisions by upper management to prohibit those services.
“This isn’t just about St. Paul’s. There are 22 organizations that are religious organizations that run senior homes and palliative care facilities throughout British Columbia that are covered under the same agreements that Providence is covered under, and that agreement allows them to pick and choose what medical services they provide based on religious belief,” Harrison said.
Harrison thinks that the BC Ministry of Health and Dix have options but are not choosing them because “they lack courage” and that Dix announced this compromise was only due to political pressure.
Providence comments
We touched base with Providence Health Care and shared the concerns that Dying with Dignity and Harrison raised about MAiD in BC.
We asked Shaf Hussain, Public Affairs, Communications with Providence Healthcare, about the perceived lack of compassion, at least on the surface, that the implementation of MAiD in BC represents.
We specifically asked about concerns about leaving a primary healthcare provider at St. Paul’s and transferring to VCH.
“MAiD is a highly specialized service,” Hussain said.
“It’s provided by a VCH team. It’s not just provided by whomever may be taking care of the patient [at] any given time at the hospital.”
He added, “Consistent with BC’s regulations, Providence works closely with VCH to ensure patient requests for MAiD are addressed in a timely and safe manner. If there are issues or concerns with transfers, the two organizations work to improve the transfer processes wherever possible.”
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