Canada’s highest court will not hear an appeal from a Vancouver doctor who has been challenging B.C. health-care system over the right to private care.

The decision ends Dr. Brian Day’s 14-year fight to allow patients access to private care when the public system is not able to offer timely care.

Dr. Day, owner of a surgery centre, claimed long wait times for medial procedures violated the right to life, liberty and security of the person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

”In a way, it’s a very sad day for Canadians,” he said.

”Wealthy Canadians have always gone down to the United States, but where do middle income and lower income Canadians go?  The answer is they’re not  allowed to go anywhere.  They stay and suffer and die on wait lists.”

B.C.’s Supreme court dismissed the constitutional challenge three years ago and the provincial Court of Appeal upheld the ruling last year.