[opendoor]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Every health care system in Canada is on the brink of collapse. The capacity shortfall is systemic and chronic, across the country.

'Serious trouble': New Ontario report latest example of Canada's health-care crisis

Quebec doctors are abandoning the public system in record numbers

Crisis at Surrey Memorial Hospital ER worsening, doctors say

Canada’s health care crunch has become ‘horrific and inhumane,’ doctors warn

That's pretty simplistic. The fact is, Alberta is having trouble attracting doctors relative to other jurisdictions and that's something that's going to impact care in the long term.

Just to compare to BC, which I'm most familiar with, in 2022 81 more physicians migrated out of Alberta than into it. BC gained 126 through migration that year.

And Alberta's number of family doctors per 1,000 residents is down about 10% from its peak and the current numbers are no better than they were 15 years ago. That's despite an aging population that would presumably require more doctors to maintain the level of care (the share of the population that's 60+ has increased by 50% in that period). BC by comparison has increased its family physicians per 1,000 residents by about 30% in that same time period while the average for Canada is a 22% increase.

These things may not be felt immediately, but you can only cut corners for so long before you see real deterioration in care levels. Particularly given that BC revamped its pay model for physicians last year, which is something Alberta needs to compete with if they want to even maintain physician numbers.