Quote:
Originally Posted by missdpuck
There is a couple at my gym from a rural area of Ontario who say the Canadian healthcare system is terrible and told me of long waiting times even in emergencies. It's part of the reason they moved here.
Then I hear other people say that that is crap, the system is great and they never have to wait. And I meet Americans who want to move to Canada for healthcare.
Does care vary by city/province?
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*Health Hat on*
Pretty much most of the responsibilities for health care in Canada is provided by the individual provinces so there will be some slight differences.
Primary care access is a problem that is facing many industrialized country at the moment. From the Alberta perspective, the population is increasing in the major cities and decreasing in the rural areas and up North.
Currently, there are 123 positions for family doctors across Alberta, 46 positions alone in Calgary. We estimate ~ 1 in 5 Calgarians don't have access to a primary care provider at the moment. At the moment, if you are in South Calgary, that population has doubled 11% in the last 2 years, so there will obviously be an increase need for health services
You can get fantasic service in small towns with minimal waiting time (assuming it's a place that hasn't had trouble with health care recruitment)
The goal is to reduce the number of people that go to the hospitals unnecessarily, hence the focus on PCNs, community care centres, mediclinics...etc. We're also encouraging doctors to work more closely with other health care providers to share the work load, to share office space with other physicians and providers (co-location), and refer patients to healthlink for general inquiries
For wait times, a lot of it depends on the available number of specialists in a particular geographical areas. It's increasingly common for people to come to Edmonton and Calgary to see a specialist.