Anyone ever had a surgical procedure done outside of Canada

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by wooohooo

I'm curious why you say this. From my knowledge they're mainly trained in the states and their training is equivalent to medical doctors and often go to the same schools but specializing in the foot instead. This was of course talking to family in the medical field (not podiatrists).

I say this for a number of reasons:

There is no way their training is even close to that of a foot and ankle surgeon. Even if the quality of study is comparable (nope), the length of time invested in training is certainly not. A foot & ankle surgeon has 10-12 years of accredited post secondary training before they'll even get a sniff of employment in a big city, and this is not including any degrees obtained before medical school.

The proof is reflected in the scope of practice, as podiatrists have a very limited list of procedures they can do, and its essentially centered around bunions, hallux valgus, orthotics and diabetic foot surveillance. A foot & ankle surgeon could do anything like reconstruct an entire traumatized limb while maintaining functionality, prosthetic arthroplasties, amputations, tendon transfers, ligament repairs...etc.

Talk to any foot and ankle surgeon for their opinion. One of them tells me of a US colleague where 50% of his practice is fixing podiatrist f-ups, particularily crappy bunionectomies where they indiscriminately shave off the bone and part of the joint causing premature osteoarthritis.

The evidence for bunion preventative measures and "fixing" them is garbage, with outcomes essentially boiling down to cosmetics and being able to cram your foot into a high heel shoe. OK that's important to some people, but the whole cottage industry is deceptively touted by podiatrists as being so much more. Don't even get me started on Orthotics.

[curves2000]

When it comes to medical tourism it really comes down a lot of times to personal experiences.

For things such as dental work, you will hear about horror stories all the time from people and the dental industry in Alberta, its their business at risk here. I have heard from very close personal friends and some business associates about very positive dental work being done in Mexico, specifically Cancun. It wasn't major surgery, more along the lines of cleaning and minor adjustments etc. Very positive experiences and in the case of the close personal friends, their business has them dealing directly with rich medical professionals such as Dr's and Dentist's all the time so take that as it is.

The Cambie clinic in Vancouver from what I understand is an amazing facility and a lot of professional athlete's go to them. They are currently in a battle with the federal and BC government's as it appears that a good chunk of the work they do there is going against specific points in the Health Act. If I recall correctly one of the founders of the clinic is going to the Supreme Court of Canada to have the case heard. His rationale is that when the government run health care in Canada specifically fails Canadian's, we are prohibited from taking specific matters into our hands and seeking choice. It's not always a matter of the "rich" jumping the line, more along the lines of what I can or can't spend my own money on. I am too lazy to search but I am sure you will find a lot of articles on the Cambie Clinic.

Good luck regardless! Try making some phone calls to other specialists in the province and see what their waiting lines are like and than get onto your family doctor to make a changing referral.

[LChoy]

Originally Posted by Zarley

It seems like many of you are overrating the quality of healthcare in Canada. Our system is adequate, but not really that great.

Maybe a good place to plug our most recent report:

https://secure.cihi.ca/estore/produc...=en&pf=PFC3385

From my own perspective:
Generally speaking, Canada is in the middle of the pack for Health Care compared with other peer countries.
Health Care quality is generally really good, WHEN a patient has access to it.

That's the rub, access continues to be an issue with our health care system, despite being one of the highest spending countries on healthcare.

From the summary, Canada does well in:

- Stroke mortality
- Perceived Health status
- Avoidable Asthma

Where improvements are needed:

- Access to care, especially with specialist
- Patient safety - hot button topic, a lot of work going on to improve this
- Obesity

Anyways, with the access issue, I can sympathize and understand why people need to go abroad to get health care

LChoy