At the end of 2009, Bob Latimer will have served his full 10 years and the government will effectively say that he has now been reformed. The question is: Has rural health care been reformed too?
Whatever your view of Robert L a t ime r, ma n y farmers across the country had hoped that Canada’s inadequate rural health care system was also on trial when he went before the Supreme Court over a decade ago.
“We need a national rural health strategy that comprehensively addresses rural health access issues for all Canadians,” agrees Dr. Karl Stobbe, president of the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada.
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A year before Tracy Latimer’s death in 1993, the Canadian government issued a report called Health Issues in Rural Canada, saying that although nearly 25 per cent of Canadians were living in rural areas (with populations of less than 10,000), only 10 per cent of all physicians practice there.
More than 15 years later, only 19 per cent of us live in rural Canada — and we’re served by 9.1 per of doctors. In particular, while rural Canada has 16 per cent of family physicians, it has only two per cent of its specialists, such as pediatricians. Even with home care, you need a doctor nearby.
“The problem with physician distribution in Canada results in major disparities in the availability of medical care — physicians, nurses and other care providers,” says Stobbe.
Country Guide talked with Bob Latimer this winter and it’s clear he doesn’t want to advocate for improvements to rural health care, or to be a poster boy in support of caregivers of severely disabled children. “There will never be enough money to help everyone and there will always be extreme situations,” says the pragmatic farmer. Instead, Latimer remains focused on fighting for a new trial, convinced that the justice system is broken.
Nevertheless, Tracy has become a martyr for the disabled advocacy movement. Her vulnerability tore at hearts across the country. Maybe that’s because at a base level, this family has shown us our own vulnerability, especially for those of us living in rural Canada. The health care we receive and the support we get if we’re aged or handicapped in rural Canada simply aren’t as good as urban services. We’re tough, but how much pain could we endure?
If Latimer wants to return to the sidelines, however, others are suiting up for change. The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) is a high-profile advocacy group for the disabled, and it is pushing for change. “We hope that all Canadians have learned from this case that it’s never acceptable to kill a person with a disability, no matter what their circumstances are, and that
