If they had, we wouldn’t be experiencing the growing exodus of family doctors.

The feds need to increase transfers to the provinces from the current 25% or so to closer to 33-35% of total costs.

This would allow the provinces to increase compensation to family doctors, and revise the Fee For Service system (at least that’s what it is called here in BC) to cover more minutes for a greater variety of services and tasks. Increased compensation would allow family doctors to hire more staff, pay them more, and cover the rest of their overhead expenses in order to continue as primary care physicians. It would hopefully attract more physicians to open primary care clinics.

Instead, family doctors are leaving the field to become higher paid specialists, or to work in for profit clinics doing tele health or charging retainer fees just to be able to see a family doctor.

Yes, each province must spend their funding responsibly, but it must be done in partnership with the feds.

So, I’m sorry to say, I give no thanks to The Liberals for their lack of leadership on this issue.

did open some public clinics in the 2010s in Ontario. I hope they come to some agreement. Some of the 4 premiers who spoke about needing more money from the feds have surpluses this year. So there is that.

the most expensive healthcare but not the best..YMMV
m

cap on nurses salaries. They do the heavy lifting.

And they are the ones that get their hands dirty and deal with the patients day in and day out.
m

Having Private, for profit businesses acting as credentialing gate keepers, especially with foreign trained healthcare professionals, is part of the problem.

My wife had 27 years experience as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist in California, 10 of those years as head of her hospital’s blood bank, but CLMS made her jump through hoops for three years, taking distance learning courses in Alberta, and then taking their licensure exam which she, of course, passed easily. Only then could she apply for a job in a Canadian laboratory.

A more sensible solution would be to grant someone like her provisional credentials, with the requirement to complete training/coursework within a certain time frame. Same with nurses and doctors whose training might be slightly different than Canada’s.

Without a doctor, you have to be far more proactive and advocate for yourself in walk in clinics or via tele health. Generally, the doctors in those settings are very good as well, provide good care and appropriate referrals, you just have to jump through more hoops and spend more time to access care.

Overall, I find the Canadian system very egalitarian- everyone is generally treated equally, based on medical necessity, not income level or quality of insurance as in the US (I had Cadillac coverage through my union contract in California).

That said, there is some discrimination against homeless, indigenous and addiction medicine patients, depending on the provider.