For years one of the most pressing issues in health care has been lengthy waiting lists for operations.
The lists apparently are being reduced, but how does a patient get on a waiting list?
It happens by visiting a family doctor and being diagnosed with an ailment needing medical treatment.
In all my 56 years in Moose Jaw, getting seen by a doctor hasn’t been an issue until recently.
Two family members and a friend were without a doctor for months when he left the province.
A friend and his daughter have had three family doctors in three years. Each doctor decided to leave the province, leaving them stranded.
This friend tried walk-in clinics, only being required to make an appointment, but only discussing one issue in the 10 minutes allotted.
Another friend, David Hofer from the Baildon Hutterite Colony, has been without a doctor for months. His family doctor retired.
He is on painkillers for his knees until a scheduled operation. Each prescription must be renewed by a doctor, but he has none.
He’s hoping to get in with a new doctor in town — a doctor who must be flooded with new patients.
According to the Saskatchewan Medical Association, one in six provincial residents is without a doctor — that is 16.6 per cent.
The data shows a bit of improvement from 17.2 per cent in 2019.
Across Canada, 6.5 million people are without a doctor — about one in every six. In 2019, only 4.5 million had no family doctor.
The numbers are worse in some provinces.
Almost one in three Quebecers and Atlantic province residents have no family doctor. Thirteen per cent in Ontario are without, up from 9.4 per cent six years ago.
The beginnings of the doctor shortage can be traced back to 1991 when the Baker-Stoddart Report on health care came out.
The report concluded there was a surplus of family doctors and they were overpaid, thus wasting taxpayer dollars.
Federal and provincial governments, eager to chop annual budget deficits, pounced on the conclusions.
Universities reduced the number of seats to train doctors. Barriers to immigration by international medical grads were increased. And governments used the report to get stingy with doctor pay.
The consequences were a gradual increase in people without doctors.
Two years of COVID-19 epidemic increased the gap as doctors left health care, along with early retirements by nurses and other health care professionals.
COVID brought the matter to a head. Various provinces are reforming pay schedules, but progress is slow.
Worse yet, thousands of doctors plan to retire within the next five years. Fewer newly trained doctors are practising family medicine.
The family doctor shortage took over 30 years to be recognized. Resolving the matter could take almost as long. The doctor shortage is global. Even in the United States, a recent poll found one in four adult Americans has no family doctor.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
