Matthew,
No offense taken. :0)
First, you may be interested in a movie called Dead Meat by On The Fence Films:
http://www.onthefencefilms.com/video/deadmeat/
As to the provinces increasing enrollment in med schools and instituting user fees:
1. Med School Enrollment. That would be great, first we need to increase the number of spots available before we can increase enrollment. There are only 16 med schools in Canada and the spots are highly contested (as they should be, you don’t want just anyone there!) and far more people are turned away than get in.
Then, you have many graduates heading to the States where they can make a heck of a lot more money. This is why (Daryl from Canada) the salary of a nurse is increasing dramatically, because we need them to stay here.
From a recent Edmonton Journal article:
“Nursing is another health field that can’t seem to grow fast enough. Although institutions around Alberta have been opening more spots, enrolment is still well behind what’s needed to combat a provincewide nursing shortage.But the demand from students appears to be there. Ruth Hunter-Moffatt, dean of health and human service careers at NorQuest College, said the practical nursing program has a wait list of 200 students, while the pharmacy technician and health-care aide programs are also red hot.”
(http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=1a6c91ab-f521-4a20-b4b3-ff68c0b52df8)
2. User Fees. I could not agree more. I have no issue paying a user fee to go to the doctor. But I do know people who would see even $10 as a barrier. Especially here in Calgary where sometimes up to 75% of your income can be spent on housing. (Personally I’m at about 60%)
But user fees are not designed to be burdonsome, they would hopefully weed out the people who abuse the system. Unfortunately the Canada Health Act prohibits this. Unless you live in Quebec, they’ve managed to circumnavigate the Health Act in many ways that the rest of us aren’t entitled to. (Private health clinics etc..)
I must say, I have gotten great individual service at MOST of my hosptial visits. It’s not the fault of health care personnel that they system is stressed. The exceptions have been with maternity care, which is why I was able to pay out of pocket ($3000) for a midwife. Because this service is not paid for in Alberta, I am able to pay for it myself. So I wasn’t one of the Calgary women giving birth in the hallways of the hospital in August 2006 due to bed shortages.
