Supporters of medicare rushed to its defence Thursday, following a stunning move a day earlier by Canadian doctors to support a parallel, private health care system.

Politicians and others denounced Wednesday's call by the Canadian Medical Association, which had strongly supported a public system until now.

"We'll do everything that's possible within our power to ensure that the five principles of medicare remain deeply entrenched as part of our practice in Canada," federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh tells CTV News from Vernon, British Columbia.

By a two-to-one margin, doctors at a CMA conference in Edmonton agreed that the medicare monopoly has failed Canadian patients, with unacceptably long wait lists for medical procedures.

The doctors say the health system is in dire need of help from the private sector.

But critics say this prescription for change is way off the mark, saying that support of a parallel, private health system has little to do with cutting wait times -- and a lot to do with lining the pockets of doctors and insurance companies.

"If doctors are really serious about seeking a solution for wait times, then that's not the solution for us as patients," says Edmonton-Strathcona MLA Raj Pannu.

"It's certainly great news for insurance companies."

Health access fund

CMA president-elect Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai seemed to downplay the doctors' backing of a parallel system on Thursday.

"Patients are suffering. And doctors are frustrated," she tells CFRN News.

But Collins-Nakai says what doctors are proposing isn't a private model, but a health access fund to pick up where medicare leaves off.

"What we're recommending is that it would be complimentary to the system. It wouldn't be two tier. It would start where the public system stops," she says.

The proposed fund, she adds, would be jointly financed by Ottawa and the provinces.

"If a patient needs to travel to a different city or even a different country for urgent service, the fund would reimburse them for it."

But critics don't seem to be buying the plan; they insist it amounts to a two-tier system that favours the "haves" -- who'll be able to buy their way to the front of the line -- while "the have-nots suffer in inappropriately long queues," says Dr. Ben Hoyt of the Canadian Association of Interns and Residents

National health advocacy groups say the CMA's proposal should serve as a wake-up call to Canadians and politicians to move quickly to protect medicare.

"I'm hoping it will wake Canadians up to get more active politically," Michael McBane, national co-ordinator for the pro-medicare Canadian Health Coalition, tells the Canadian Press from Ottawa.

"We now need political leadership to protect our public health care system from the elites in Canada who are trying to take it away."

McBane adds that the federal government should strictly enforce the Canada Health Act and make doctors either opt in or out of the publicly-funded health care system so physicians can't "double-dip."

Lucille Auffrey, executive director of the Canadian Nurses Association, tells CP that CMA members are off base in attacking what her group believes is a fundamental Canadian value.

"What's wrong with our colleagues here? They have not got the solution right at all," Auffrey says.

She adds that the way to fix medicare is to solve staffing shortages and allow nurses and pharmacists to perform more tasks.

But an Alberta government spokesperson applauds the CMA plan, saying doctors are finally recognizing what the province's citizens have been saying for some time.

"Albertans want a public-health care system that offers more choice and better access," David Dear, an Alberta Health and Wellness spokesperson tells CP.

Pilot projects in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, have contracted out hundreds of hip and knee surgeries to private clinics -- something the Alberta government hopes could cut wait times by up to 6 months.

Alberta is also studying whether it's practical to set up a private insurance plan that allows Albertans to buy extra health insurance for non-emergency medical procedures.

The province's health minister is expected to report back to caucus on the issue in the fall.

With reports from CTV's Deborah Shiry and the Canadian Press