Inquiry hears evidence of queue-jumping at University of Calgary medical clinic

CALGARY – An inquiry is hearing allegations that a high-ranking University of Calgary doctor not only helped private patients jump the queue at a public cancer-screening clinic, he also moved them to the front of the line at the university health centre.

The allegations came in testimony at Alberta’s queue-jumping inquiry from Dr. Mark Swain, the head of gastroenterology in Calgary.

Swain says he has examined 52 of the 55 patient records connected to Dr. Ron Bridges in the last year and a half.

Swain says in 44 per cent of the cases, Bridges bypassed the normal triage procedure to book patients on his own.

He says those patients received accelerated care for colon-cancer screening in weeks or months while other patients had to wait close to two years.

Staff at the publicly funded Colon Cancer Screening Centre have already testified they believe Bridges was behind a scheme that saw patients from the private Helios Wellness Centre moved to the front of the line for tests.