Docs balk at deciding how fat is too fat for one seat

By CHRISTINA SPENCER, NATIONAL BUREAU

Last Updated: 10th January 2009, 3:58am

Dr. Robert Ouellet, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said physicians are "disappointed" with a new policy from Air Canada and WestJet that obese or disabled passengers who need an extra seat must have a doctor's note.

"The question of whether or not someone can fit into a specific seat on a specific plane is not a medical question," Ouellet said in a statement.

The CMA has long complained doctors spend too much time on paperwork. For instance, the group is currently negotiating with the Canada Pension Plan to simplify its medical claim forms and increase the fees for completing them.

Requiring a doctor's note to gain an extra seat on a flight "shows a disregard for the issue of scarce medical resources," the group says.

The airlines' decision to require doctors' notes follows a court ruling that carriers make a free extra seat available for the obese or disabled who require it. Airlines have until today to start doing so.

Ouellet said airlines "should not try and pass the buck to physicians over what is essentially a business matter."

WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer did not respond directly to the doctors' concern, but said in an e-mail that the airline had developed its policy "to comply with the Canadian Transportation Agency ruling." An Air Canada spokesman could not be reached


My Comments on the Matter

If a person walks up to the ticket counter it should be plainly obvious if they will need extra accomodation or not. The airlines are using an embarrasing tactic to make it even more difficult for overweight people to travel using airlines. To top it all off, Dr's charge for notes and if you could persuade yours to write one you would then be unduley penalized for being sick.

Part of the problem is in Canada, obeisity is not recognized as a disease, in the US it is. Instead it is recognized as a co-morbitity to other diseases such as sleep apnea, heart disease, cancer, etc.

This move by the airlines is nothing short of discriminatory action as a disabled person does not require a Dr's note if their wheelchair must be accomodated because the ticket agent can see that. Judging by this logic, they should also be able to tell that a severley obese person can not fit into a single seat, so why the discrepency.

At a time when obesity is on the rise and millions of North Americans are afflicted with it, it is very disheartening to see the airlines using these tactics.

That's just my opinion, what do I know?

Wayne