An elderly B.C. woman who had to place an ad to find a doctor is not the only sign that the system needs substantial reforms, say a doctor and a policy expert..On Thursday, Western Standard reported on Janet Mort who placed an ad in her local Victoria newspaper to get a doctor for her ailing 82-year-old husband. .Although the Morts were rewarded for their effort, their former plight remains for many Canadians. Statistics Canada data suggests health worker shortages are nearly double pre-pandemic levels. .Dr. Brian Day, a surgeon who opened the private Cambie Surgical Centre in Vancouver in 1996, says patients in the public system who’ve had enough of wait lists take it out on staff..“The shortage is largely due to a toxic work environment. Frustrated patients take out their frustrations on the front line workers. Just as at airports, the overworked front-line health care workers are blamed, rather than the responsible upper echelons,” Day told the Western Standard..“OECD data shows Canada has above average numbers of nurses per population. But they are moving jobs, or retiring early, or just leaving the country.”.Day sent Western Standard a chart that showed Canada was top-heavy in its bureaucrat-to-doctor ratio. The numbers were researched by Ella Szabo and derived from numerous sources..B.C. had 7,243 doctors and 5,997 health bureaucrats, a ratio of roughly 1.2 to 1. Alberta had 4,854 bureaucrats and 1,009 doctors for a ratio of 4.2 to 1. Quebec’s ratio was more favorable at 6.8 to 1, as was Ontario’s at 7.8 to 1..“Governments spend their resources on growing government,” said Day, a former head of the Canadian Medical Association who took the province to court over its ban on private health insurance..“Health workers are frowned upon by government because they look after patients and that uses up government money in our block funding system.”.David Leis, an Abbotsford, B.C. resident and vice-president at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, says without a greater role for the private sector, the problems in Canadian health care will only grow..“Despite having so many dedicated professionals in our health care system, it is a dysfunctional public monopoly. A labour market is almost nonfunctional as [what] you would have in any part of the [market] economy,” Leis told the Western Standard..“Advanced innovative health systems such as France, Germany and Sweden understand this and have a mixture of private and public health providers within a managed competition vying for health professionals rather than pretending government can plan it all out. Ironically, their performance outcomes are much higher, less costly and they have an older demographic than Canada.”.An analysis by French corporation Companow found “France’s healthcare system offers more consistent advantages than Canada’s … France’s excellent results across the board make it an excellent country to get sick in.”.Companow found two-thirds of Canadians have complementary health insurance, and the average household spends $4000 a year on private insurance premiums, partly because dental care and drug coverage was inconsistent. In France, the government reimburses 70 percent of medical fees through tax dollars, and pays for some operations in full. Semi-private insurance plans to cover the remainder cost less than $50 per person per month..The analysis determined that all told, Canadians spent a lower percentage of GDP on health care than the French did, but more dollars per capita. They said Canadian primary care compared well, but France was better in other respects..“France has less lab, medical and medication errors, less disease burden, and even has lower mortality rates,” Companow said..“France has the least deaths avoidable with healthcare in the world. Furthermore, there’s no waiting time.”
