Posted on 02/18/2005 9:09:37 AM PST by FormerACLUmember
Ontario's doctor shortage is taking a turn for the worse as the last six physicians in the town of Geraldton are quitting en masse, presenting another headache for Health Minister George Smitherman.
The move will leave the local hospital and thousands of patients with no physicians when the departures take effect in May — unless months of failed efforts to recruit replacement physicians suddenly pay off.
Losing its doctors will likely move Geraldton to the top of the list of about 140 cities and towns in the province officially designated by the government as being short of doctors. About 100 of those are in southern Ontario.
The Ontario Medical Association estimates one million Ontarians don't have family physicians and says that number is likely to grow with hundreds of doctors — many of them over 65 — within a few years of retiring.
The Geraldton crisis comes at an awkward time for Smitherman, whose ministry is embroiled in contract talks with doctors through the OMA, which has warned that the doctor shortage will grow worse without more incentives.
"We're sick at what this could mean for our patients," Dr. Saralaine Johnstone said in a phone interview yesterday from Geraldton, a community of 3,000 which is one of four towns amalgamated into the municipality of Greenstone, a three-hour drive north of Thunder Bay.
But long workdays, adding up to between 80 and 100 hours a week for the doctors staffing the Geraldton District Hospital, a community clinic and a satellite office in a nearby small town, have taken their toll, she added.
"There's a minimum number of physicians you need to be able to practise safely and the number dropped below that threshold. Eventually it does become unsafe for the physicians and the community."
Most of the doctors had signed on for three-year contracts in Geraldton and their time is up, Johnstone added, noting several want to spend more time with their families or to return to southern Ontario.
"We're not alone in this. This is something that many communities are facing," said Greenstone Mayor Michael Power, who was in Toronto for a meeting. "But when you have every doctor leaving (at the same time), that hits you really hard."
Geraldton residents learned of the pending departures in a notice published by the doctors in a local newspaper this week.
"Everyone's in a state of shock," Pat Larsen, who works at a car rental agency and has lived in Geraldton for 32 years, told the Star. "It's really, really devastating. There's so many seniors in our area and they need a lot of care."
Smitherman said his officials are trying to help Geraldton find replacement doctors. "The people of Geraldton will not be left abandoned," he vowed.
A short-term solution could involve luring doctors to Geraldton for temporary stints, known as locums. "This hospital is part of a five-hospital network, which means that there is other strength in the region that we can depend upon," Smitherman said.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton called that approach inadequate because the nearest communities with doctors — Hearst and Nipigon — are a two-hour drive away. He said the government's lack of a plan to attract more physicians is making Geraldton a "doctor ghost town."
"Physicians in a small northern community like Geraldton are typically quite overworked because they're almost always on call weekends and after hours ... They really take on huge responsibilities."
OMA president Dr. John Rapin said he talked to some of the Geraldton doctors yesterday and noted their contract makes them among the best paid in the province. They are part of a program designed to lure doctors to remote northern areas.
But it's not a matter of money — it's the hours they must put in unless more doctors can be recruited to share the load, added Rapin, an emergency room physician in Kingston. "Nobody's prepared to work to the death."
Conservative health critic John Baird (Nepean-Carleton) warned that Geraldton won't be the last community to lose its doctors.
"Geraldton is a microcosm of what Ontario will be like because of the failure of the McGuinty government to have a plan to retain and attract doctors in Ontario."
Smitherman said the government is taking steps to ease the doctor shortage, including offering a new contract that would make Ontario physicians the highest-paid in Canada.
The deal would boost their pay by about $1 billion over four years, with some physicians who work outside traditional office hours in remote areas getting hikes of up to 35 per cent.
Interesting.
I took a tour of Victoria on Vancouver Island last summer. It's the capitol of British Columbia and a pretty though touristy place to visit.
Our guide very proudly told us that Government employees were the largest group of workers on the island, followed by those working in the tourist industry. When we passed the hospital complex she very proudly stated that Vancouver Island residents could get every health service they required right there. In fact, they WERE NOT ALLOWED to travel anywhere else in Canada for health care--not even across the Sound to the huge city of Vancouver. They were stuck with local doctors.
I had recently had a corneal transplant, performed by the most qualified expert I could find in the USA. While researching who that might be, I came across a study of transplants done in that Victoria hospital. They had a failure rate three times as great as transplants performed in US hospitals and the patients interviewed complained of the long wait time before they could get in. I'd printed out that Canadian study and showed it to my surgeon. He literally sneered. Canada!
Sounds like some of the indentured servants are revolting and seeking better situations.
People who demand "free health care for all" never seem to understand that their demand implies a claim on other people's services. That sort of claim is the basis of slavery.
Sounds like the making of a sequel to the old TV series "Northern Exposure."
But the problem is, if you lived in this community, that the article talks about, you would have a two hour drive just to see a doctor to get a prescription.
Not a very good prospect if a real emergency came up.
Good point. That certainly is unfortunate. Maybe there's a quick program to get foreign doctors licensed in the US.
My guess is zero.
I work with one who threatened to. Actually it was his ultra - lib wife doc who was making those noises.
I was a mean conservative and said that I wished people who made those threats would follow through. Empty threats/ promises mean nothing and make me less likely to listen to anything they said.
The good news is that you get to not see the doctors for free.
I really enjoyed your first hand information about Canadian medical care, and can offer another to the discussion.
Fort Leavenworth military schools include many students and instructors from other countries. While we were there, the British liasson (sp) officer had a heart attack, and I distinctly remember he and his wife were desperate for his surgery to be done in Kansas City, rather than being sent back to London.
Gosh. I think we should adopt Canada's health care system for the USA. It rocks! ...except for the lack of physicians. Umm... Never mind.
"They may not have health care but I bet they all have health insurance."
...Exactly, don't you just love socialized medicine? Hillary's dream is a reality in Ontario, the state above her state.
The problem as I see it with Canada's doctor shortage stems from some really silly laws.
Canada needs doctors in rural areas but the socialist government has passed laws that just about guarantees that these shortage will never be filled.
It is almost impossible to get into a residency training program if you have not graduated from a Canadian or USA medical school.
Most medical school graduates from Canada or USA prefer to practice medicine here in the USA.
Why go to Canada and take a 50% pay cut and have to deal with inane laws that does not benefit patient or doctor.
Quite the sad commentary on socialized medicine in England, YaYa.
Meanwhile, even in the USA, it seems to me that the best policy is to do everything you can to prevent sickness and disease.
Hope you are well!
As long as the teachers can do CPR why do Canadians need doctors? Besides, there is always Doctors Without Borders...
hahahahahhahahahahah... priceless
That is certainly true. I once talked to an Eastern European who knew a lot of doctors who left from there to US or Canada. Almost none of the ones who went to Canada could get licensed to practise there. They either had to do something else (like driving taxis) or leave for USA to be doctors there.
The good things is that the Canadian government has noticed the problem now and is talking about relaxing rules for foreign doctors. There is a chance laws might become less silly...
a sense of humor among the hard working - irony will get you nothing, but softdrinks up your nose from sucking it up. Thanks. John Galt never was more profound.
HUGE percentage of Ontario has no "free" doctor. They get what they pay for. Not to mention being the only Western hemisphere SARS cesspool of infection last year.
I have a good friend who is refugee from the Canadian totalitarian system. He is a French Canadian M.D., and the situation is appalling for doctors in Quebec... rapidly becoming a frozen third world.
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