CLINIC DIRECTOR: Dr Mark Godley MB ChB, FRCPC
Dr Mark Godley is the principal of a state-of-the-art surgical centre serving patients from across Canada in its location in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. Godley is a highly skilled medical doctor, a Canadian Fellowship trained specialist in anaesthesiology, and an outspoken champion of patients’ rights. He is well-respected by his medical colleagues. He frequently presents topics of expertise at Canadian Anaesthesiologists’ Society annual meetings. Dr. Godley also advises on sophisticated and innovative medical interventions across a broad range of surgical disciplines for which he is responsible.
Dr. Godley is an expert in both public and private models of health care delivery in Canada. He is regularly consulted about the Canadian healthcare system by provincial and federal governments, royal commissions and federal inquiries. Dr. Godley, or Mark, as he is known to his patients and to all who work with him, is often quoted in Canadian newspapers, magazines, and television.
Mark Godley knows the pros and cons of Canada’s healthcare system. After coming to Canada in 1989, he worked as the only doctor in a small rural Saskatchewan town. Mark then went on to practice medicine in a medium-sized city in Alberta, as well as in the rapidly-growing metropolis in and around Vancouver. He knows how Canada’s healthcare system compares to the one in South Africa, his birth country. He also observed, while working in England and in Switzerland, how these countries provide safe and effective quality care. Both have mixed private and public healthcare systems.
Dr. Godley is a physician with a cause. Mark is passionate in his belief that patients must once again be the focus of the Canadian healthcare system. He resolved to act on his belief that Canadians want and deserve choice in the healthcare services they access. He delivers on what he promises. In 1998, Mark, together with a number of other doctors, founded the False Creek Surgical Centre.
This Vancouver medical facility was much-needed to provide non-emergent surgical services to patients being made to endure long waits before they could access care. He takes pride in having obtained for the facility the much-coveted accreditation status awarded by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation. The False Creek Surgical Centre is the only private centre in Canada to have attained this prestigious rating.
However, it was an injustice caused by Canadian laws governing healthcare that spurred Mark’s next steps. Patients requiring immediate surgery because they have, for example, hand injuries experienced at work, may be referred to the False Creek Surgical Centre by the Workers’ Compensation Board. Canadian law says these are private patients, as are patients sent by Canada’s Defense Department, the RCMP and Corrections Canada. Each of these government bodies pays directly for the patient’s treatment.
In contrast, regular Canadians cannot pay for their medical care. As a result, the departments of the WCB, National Defense, the RCMP and Corrections Canada get priority for their private patients in the context of the Canadian healthcare system. Mark lobbied to advance the interests of the average Canadian through expansion of the opportunities for surgery for public patients. The strategy has resulted in contracts between regional health authorities and private providers to deliver public insured surgical services within private surgery centres.
Mark Godley established a second private surgical facility that has been running successfully in the Province of Manitoba for five years. In December 2005, he achieved accreditation to perform the first private MRIs in Manitoba.
Mark’s vision includes an accessible, patient-focused healthcare system that will continue to provide comprehensive quality health care well into the future, when his infant daughter is an adult and has her own children. He sees that governments and private providers need to work collaboratively to increase the capacity of the healthcare system. Because increased demand for services and budget constraints threaten the sustainability of the Canadian healthcare, provincial governments are looking for innovation.
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