Exposing the chronic doctor shortage across Canada

A growing crisis has hospitals stretched to its limits with about 5 million Canadians without a family doctor. Chief Anchor Lisa LaFlamme reports.

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20 comments

  1. Maybe because our Single-Payer Healthcare system is a complete disaster, just like it is in the UK?. Maybe if we followed the American model, which is WORLD CLASS, and had private hospitals competing with each other and proper Health Insurance we wouldn’t be facing this problem. “Free” Healthcare is a sham, just like the Socialist candidates you’re promoting.

    1. There’s a better way. The Israeli model: Multiple (4, I think) providers competing for their share of the funds. The public chooses to join one provider or the other, and the funds are distributed according to the number of members. Every provider wants more members so it tries to provide the best care.

    1. @Allon Messenberg I misspoke it was from October 7th, but in your opinion why is it fake? Zerohedge also has a story about I today

  2. I am a retired Registered Nurse who spent over 25 years in emergency departments in southern Ontario, and this issue has been a problem for that long. Most physicians are choosing specialty fields rather than family practice. Family physicians do not get the respect or pay that they deserve. Nurse practitioners were introduced to help with this problem of primary care. But they have not been completely supported by the medical community and they average salary is not reflective of their education and expertise. It takes a total of 7 years or more to become a nurse practitioner. The average salary is only slightly more than a senior RN. Walk in clinics are fine for short term illness and were set up to help reduce the workload on emergency departments, and I am sure they do to a degree. This is a problem I suspect across Canada as the population grows older and patients are getting sicker. Yet there are funding cuts in many ares which only add to this impossible situation, especially in Ontario.

  3. I thought all of those 300,000 immigrants a year were licenced doctors in the third world countries they escaped from to get lots of welfare here.

  4. The family doctor model is broken.
    Most doctors these days are too old and they are all semi retired in my area, which means is they are not taking any new patients and are not accepting any seriously sick patients either. ( I know this from trying to get a family doctor and having to travel over 100 km to find one willing to take me on!) When searching the available doctors list I was told by several ‘ I’m looking for a family or two, not persons needing surgery’, a family rarely needs more than a prescription here or there but a truly sick person, well the doctor would be called away from his office to attend my surgeries in a city with a surgery room in use. Then the doctor would have to come see me twice a day while I’m in hospital, all while still maintaining his practice.
    The other problem is medical schools are no longer turning out general practitioners! Everybody is now specialized and working towards becoming wealthy, no one wants to be a family doctor anymore, there isnt enough money in it and the cost of schooling is too expensive! We are also seeing our doctors flee south to work in the usa, its all about the money….

    1. Yes FD are choosing what type of practice they want. In fact at one time they would interview patients before taking them as a client. If that patient had too many health issues they would be considered to time consuming.

  5. as a medical student perspective, its also very competitive to get into a canadian school and most students that stay have other ambitions than family medicine. I left the country for school and probably will choose to practice in america but a shame that our country loses out on so much home grown talent

  6. There’s hundreds of doctors in other countries who would love to come to Canada but their degrees are not recognized in Canada due to restrictions imposed by Medical Associations in the various provinces. We can’t expect those doctors to come here and work at McDonald’s while they spend two or more years getting the certification of those medical associations.

    1. Not true, Canadians who graduate don’t stay in Canada to build their careeers because the government takes all their money in taxes. Stop taxing doctors and the country will be over saturated with doctors.

  7. well, there is nationalized healthcare for you. I went to the hospital for a sprained back. After waiting for hours, the doctor asked me to lean in different directions for ten minutes, prescribed pain medication, and charged the taxpayers 700 dollars. I know because i lost my bc health card and was in Toronto.

  8. Foreign aid 6 billions ….this money would do a lot in Canada. But you guys are asking too much, and PM looks so handsome.

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