Doctors are now interviewing patients in Canada

July 12, 2007

With the GP shortage, physicians in Canada can afford to pick and choose patients:

Apparently the workload has become too severe for some doctors and they would prefer not to see patients that require too much work (you know, the folks that are sick and really need a doctor). What I thought was most telling was the statement from one recently licensed doctor who said he was performing these interviews so that he could limit his daily schedule of patients to between 30-40 per day. Otherwise he said it was just too much work. The story went on to say that there is now a shortfall of doctors in Canada, and they can afford to be choosey when it comes to patients. There is now a glut of’orphan’ patients in Canada who have been forced to apply 30-40 times for care from a doctor and in some cases have been’let go’ by their current physicians because of their recurring ailments.



Related posts:

  1. Overweight doctors counseling obese patients
  2. The deterioration of "free" care in Canada
  3. Canada wants its doctors back
  4. How to lure doctors to remote areas?
  5. Do they only see 5 hospitalized patients per day in Canada?
  6. You know, maybe Canada needs to spend more on health care
  7. Surprise! A urology shortage in Canada


KevinMD.com on Facebook


  Follow on Twitter   Subscribe



{ 3 comments }

1 Anonymous July 12, 2007 at 2:18 pm

Oh, not to fear. I’m sure the Canadian government would be more than happy to import hordes of doctors from abroad – just like their British counterparts.

I guess that means the’ll have to reinforce the entrancesw to their airport terminals. A small price to pay for universal health care.

2 Anonymous July 13, 2007 at 8:12 pm

Are you for real? Have you been to a rural US hospital recently? I have. The vast majority of these small hospitals you would be lucky to pronounce a physicians name correctly there are so many foreigners. And if they are not foreign a large percentage of the remaining are running from something.

3 Anonymous July 14, 2007 at 10:11 pm

Simple economics. When you set a price ceiling, there will be shortages for a given quality of product. Or, the quality/cost to produce will have to go down. You are seeing both effects.

Your only hope is to find altruistic doctors who are willing to work 60 hours a week and don’t need money. Good luck, because I know very few people like that and their clinics are already full.
b

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post: reddit’s front page and How Doctors Think

Next post: Fecal disimpaction

Site Meter