Stephanie Levitz, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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BEIJING - Athletes won't be a drain on the Canadian public health system during the 2010 Games, the doctor in charge for the Vancouver Olympics says.

Organizers are hoping to be able to treat almost all ailments at a planned Olympic infirmary, different than the standard polyclinic at most Games.

"The lesson learned (from Beijing) is we're going to have an infirmary," said Dr. Jack Taunton, the chief medical officer for the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee who is working with the International Olympic Committee overseeing health services in Beijing.

"The whole mandate that I've been given by he IOC is not to impact on medical services outside the fence. We should not impact unless it's a dire emergency."

While the polyclinics at Olympic Games house state-of-the-art medical technologies for diagnoses and initial treatment, illnesses or incidents requiring a stay in hospital usually see athletes transferred to host city facilities.

Taunton doesn't want it to work that way in 2010.

"If you've got somebody with chicken pox, you treat them in your own infirmary with your own nursing rather than stick them in the hospital," he said.

At the Beijing Olympics, Canadian archer JD Burnes experienced that firsthand.

He almost missed his competition when he was stricken with appendicitis.

While the initial diagnosis came at the clinic in the athletes' village, Burnes was sent to the China-Japan Friendship hospital for treatment.

Burnes said going to the hospital was like stepping back in time.

"There is a huge crystal chandelier, an exclusive entrance," he said. "The nurses all had white caps, white blouses, white high-heeled shoes."

At the hospital, an entire wing has been set aside for Olympic athletes.

Burnes said he was the only one there during his stay, though Taunton said at least 90 athletes had been in hospital during the first week of the Games.

Hospital staff said the wing is 30 rooms used as a vaccination clinic and to treat foreign visitors to Beijing outside of the Olympic period.

"Everyone knows that's the hospital for the athletes," said one man selling newspapers around the corner from the hospital. "It doesn't take anything away from us."

The hospital said it couldn't give a tour of the area, citing privacy concerns and that staff were too busy to talk about their work.

In an interview with China's state-run English newspaper, the China Daily, the head of the hospital said there was a 170-member team devoted just to providing Games-time health care.

Beijing has 23 hospitals designated as service centres for the Olympics.

In Vancouver, there will be two.

Vancouver General Hospital is designated as the Olympic family hospital, meaning International and National Olympic committee members as well as sponsors and media.

St. Paul's, in the heart of downtown Vancouver, is the designated spectator hospital.

While the majority of health-care issues during an Olympics come from the workers and volunteers, Taunton said, there's no intention of having any of them given priority access because of the Games.

"We're not going to bump anyone from the emergency room," he said, adding that workplace injuries will be treated on site, though follow-up requirements for staff will go to their regular family doctors.

What struck Burnes the most in Beijing was the efficiency of the care, both on the Olympic green and in hospital.

Nurses and doctors seemed to check on him every 10 minutes, he said, and CT scans, MRIs and medication all came his way almost instantaneously.

"I really don't think you'd get the care I got in Canada," he said. "You'd be waiting months to get a CT scan in Toronto."

Olympic sponsors provide much of the medical technology used during the Games and then often donate it to the host city or hospital after the Olympics.

GE has already given Whistler, B.C., the host city for Nordic events in 2010, a CT scanner, which will remain in the Whistler clinic after the Games.

Burnes said it was clear to him that the care he was getting might not be available to average Chinese citizen.

But he said without it, his dream of competing in the Games might have ended sooner than his loss on the sports field.

"Without the speed and expertise of the doctors, I wouldn't have been able to compete in three days time," he said. "I'm just very thankful to them."