Post by Matter on Aug 19, 2004 3:37:06 GMT -5
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$1B plan to end doctor shortage
Proposed fund would boost training, retention
It's time to end the staffing boom-bust cycle, CMA says
ELAINE CAREY
MEDICAL REPORTER
Canada needs to invest $1 billion over the next five years to reverse its serious shortage of doctors and ensure there will be enough health-care providers in future to reduce long waiting lists plaguing hospitals, the Canadian Medical Association says.
The association wants Ottawa to create a national health human resources reinvestment fund, which would plan for future personnel needs and "help end the health human resources boom-and-bust planning cycle," outgoing president Dr. Sunil Patel told a news conference at the annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.
Health reform experts have identified the shortage of all types of physicians, nurses and technicians as a major obstacle to cutting waiting times for procedures such as joint replacement, heart bypass and cancer care.
The proposed $1 billion fund would set up an institute to determine what the needs would be in various categories.
It would also be used to increase enrolment in medical schools and expand the number of post-graduate training spots; to fast-track foreign-trained doctors into the system; and to establish a recruitment and retention program for all health-care providers.
"Canadians recognize that the critical shortage of health human resources is the key barrier to our system's ability to provide timely access to needed health-care services," Patel said.
"It is time our politicians did as well."
Canada ranks 25th among 30 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in the number of doctors available to citizens, with 2.1 physicians per 1,000 population.
The average among those nations is 2.9, according to a report on the doctor shortage that was presented at the conference.
The most serious shortage is in the category of family physicians. Currently, 4 million Canadians lack a family doctor, including almost 2 million in Ontario.
Canada is losing about 200 to 250 physicians a year to the United States. That's fewer doctors than in the past, but the number could rise again if the United States begins actively recruiting here to fill its own shortage, the report warns.
The aging population and the graying physician pool, as well as the desire by younger doctors to work shorter hours, will also lead to further shortages, it says.
"Even with the reform of primary care, we see an increasing shortfall between the medical services required and the people to provide them," said Dr. Ian Hanson, chair of the report's working group.
"The message to government is it's foolish to run a system of $120 billion a year when you don't have a plan to resource it."
Right now, planning is done on an ad-hoc basis across the country, he said, "and we think this is bad planning, foolish."
While Canada needs to better utilize foreign-trained doctors who have come to Canada but face barriers to practising here, it ultimately must reduce its dependency on them by increasing first-year medical school enrolment to 2,500 by 2007 (up from the present 2,200) and reducing the recruitment of foreign-trained doctors by a third, to 264.
That would mean that by 2015, 80 per cent of physicians would be graduates of Canadian medical schools, up from the current 75 per cent.
"There is increasing international pressure for Canada to stop `poaching' international medical graduates from countries that can ill afford to lose them," the report says.
"We're saying we must not poach cheap labour; that's why self-sufficiency is important," Patel said.
"Health reform is meaningless unless we ensure an adequate supply of doctors and nurses with the infrastructure and tools they need to attend to their patients," he said.
The CMA has had informal talks with the federal health minister about all the elements in the report, Hanson said, but has not formally presented its request for funding.
With files from Canadian Press
Proposed fund would boost training, retention
It's time to end the staffing boom-bust cycle, CMA says
ELAINE CAREY
MEDICAL REPORTER
Canada needs to invest $1 billion over the next five years to reverse its serious shortage of doctors and ensure there will be enough health-care providers in future to reduce long waiting lists plaguing hospitals, the Canadian Medical Association says.
The association wants Ottawa to create a national health human resources reinvestment fund, which would plan for future personnel needs and "help end the health human resources boom-and-bust planning cycle," outgoing president Dr. Sunil Patel told a news conference at the annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.
Health reform experts have identified the shortage of all types of physicians, nurses and technicians as a major obstacle to cutting waiting times for procedures such as joint replacement, heart bypass and cancer care.
The proposed $1 billion fund would set up an institute to determine what the needs would be in various categories.
It would also be used to increase enrolment in medical schools and expand the number of post-graduate training spots; to fast-track foreign-trained doctors into the system; and to establish a recruitment and retention program for all health-care providers.
"Canadians recognize that the critical shortage of health human resources is the key barrier to our system's ability to provide timely access to needed health-care services," Patel said.
"It is time our politicians did as well."
Canada ranks 25th among 30 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in the number of doctors available to citizens, with 2.1 physicians per 1,000 population.
The average among those nations is 2.9, according to a report on the doctor shortage that was presented at the conference.
The most serious shortage is in the category of family physicians. Currently, 4 million Canadians lack a family doctor, including almost 2 million in Ontario.
Canada is losing about 200 to 250 physicians a year to the United States. That's fewer doctors than in the past, but the number could rise again if the United States begins actively recruiting here to fill its own shortage, the report warns.
The aging population and the graying physician pool, as well as the desire by younger doctors to work shorter hours, will also lead to further shortages, it says.
"Even with the reform of primary care, we see an increasing shortfall between the medical services required and the people to provide them," said Dr. Ian Hanson, chair of the report's working group.
"The message to government is it's foolish to run a system of $120 billion a year when you don't have a plan to resource it."
Right now, planning is done on an ad-hoc basis across the country, he said, "and we think this is bad planning, foolish."
While Canada needs to better utilize foreign-trained doctors who have come to Canada but face barriers to practising here, it ultimately must reduce its dependency on them by increasing first-year medical school enrolment to 2,500 by 2007 (up from the present 2,200) and reducing the recruitment of foreign-trained doctors by a third, to 264.
That would mean that by 2015, 80 per cent of physicians would be graduates of Canadian medical schools, up from the current 75 per cent.
"There is increasing international pressure for Canada to stop `poaching' international medical graduates from countries that can ill afford to lose them," the report says.
"We're saying we must not poach cheap labour; that's why self-sufficiency is important," Patel said.
"Health reform is meaningless unless we ensure an adequate supply of doctors and nurses with the infrastructure and tools they need to attend to their patients," he said.
The CMA has had informal talks with the federal health minister about all the elements in the report, Hanson said, but has not formally presented its request for funding.
With files from Canadian Press
Special delivery for Peanut! ;D
