Some of you may know that I work for Health here so I may be a bit bias, but I'll do my best to give a neutral commentary
What I see right now is that the system is caught between traditional and the new generation of health care delivery.
It may be interesting to note, but there is no such thing as a standard working hour/days per week for physicians. On average in Alberta, physicians work an equivalent of 3.2 days providing primary care (seeing patients). The rest of that time can spent on many number of things including research, academic pursuits, and administrative duties. There is also know standard to a physician's patient panel (the number of patients that call them "their doctor"). In Alberta, it ranges from 300 to 1700 people.
The problem being is that government needs time to adapt to the changing habit of physicians and other health care providers. Our parent's generation had physicians regularly working a full work week and making house calls. Currently with nurses, their work hours are shorter than a generation before. They can also do much more than their earlier counter parts. If we are looking purely at head counts, the ratio of health providers to the population has remained quite stable (although reduced these last 2 decades). However, it's the amount of workable hours that is going down. Lastly, and just speaking of trends here, a greater % of physicians and health care providers are women. However, statistically speaking, they tend to work fewer hours than their male counter parts
Now, am I blaming the physicians and health care provider, nope. Alberta has one of the highest reimbursement rates in all of Canada. Physicians shouldn't have to kill themselves working 80 hour weeks earning a living, when they can focus on quality patient care working at a clinic 3 days a week. Physicians also have much more to their duties from a generation past including research, collaborating with drug companies, teaching, learning opportunities. They also have to manage the business side to their business and cover overhead that was much simpler years before. It's not an easy life, so they are entitled to their compensation and set the hours they can handle. Same goes with the nursing professions, they are being trained to perform duties ranging from an LPN to a nurse pratitioner level. Problem however is that it's creating a gap at the lower end of the spectrum and that's responsible for the shortages facing the nursing staff.
The direction the government seems to be going (right or wrong) is that it's not the numbers of health care providers needed, but making the ones we have now work more effectively.
I don't think that means physicians and nurses going back to 80 hour weeks. However, little things like utilizing all the knowledge that nurses now have to see patients directly instead at clinics (ie, re-filling a prescription, BP checks, most physicals, getting an inhaler can all be accomplished by a nurse rather than a physician). Other ideas include re-looking at health care compensation. Alberta has the highest rate of physician fee for service (how physicians get paid, they bill directly to the government, so you don't see a bill). From the previous example, a physicial done by a nurses is covered by their salary while a physician bills $260 for the same 10min visit.
Anyways, sorry to go on a tangent
The government tends to get mostly the negative view on things but we are trying to make things better
__________________
|