Company finds doctors outside Canada

An Alberta company is going national with its private health care service. Private Care International Agency (PCIA) is expanding the service to residents of Ontario and other provinces across Canada.

The company was launched last summer in Edmonton.

“The service provided by our company is quite straight-forward,” says president Phillip Rutter, a retired Edmonton physician. “We help those who wish to explore the options outside Canada for obtaining timely, quality medical treatment or medical testing which may not immediately be available to them in this country.”

Rutter and his partner Reuben Weinberg, (also a retired doctor), say they have quickly learned how valuable their service can be. Over the last year, the company identified physicians, surgeons, specialists and medical facilities in several countries to locate medical options for its clients.

“I am not here to comment on the circumstances or public policies in Canada which create the need for our service,” says Rutter. “We are neither politicians nor policymakers. Neither are we any longer actively practicing physicians. Rather, we are individuals who have witnessed first hand the great stre and anguish experienced by many of our fellow Canadians who are in need of certain medical treatment or testing but who were told that they must await their turn. Waiting, for many, can be a painful and sometime hazardous option.”

Payment for referrals
The company serves those who don’t want to wait for medical treatment or diagnosis and are willing to pay for it elsewhere. PCIA takes the information and prescribed course of treatment provided to its clients by their own physicians here in Canada, and searches for appropriate medical treatment elsewhere. The company charges a fee for finding the alternative medical service.

Rutter says that the company has no intention of providing medical services within Canada.

“We realize that governments in Canada – federal and provincial-are trying to provide quality health care for all Canadians,” he says.

“We’re confident that they can do that. But it’s a huge, complex task and one which will inevitably take considerable time to do. Meanwhile, there are many Canadians out there who need help now.”