The Universal Healthcare has been hailed as a holy grail of Canadian society. Many of the health reports published paint this publicly funded health system as a reflection of their core values. Such conclusions are easily made basing on the surveys that put Canadian satisfaction rate with the health system at 85%. There are however several problems with universal healthcare in Canada that have persisted over time.
This is revealed in the reports showing the agony most of the patients goes through when accessing healthcare. These challenges that threaten to render the whole system unsustainable in the long run. There is a call to redesign the system in order to address the current weaknesses.
The average time a patient will wait for a doctor is very long as indicated by 59% of respondents in one survey who reveals that they take an average of four weeks before they can get to see the doctor. This situation is particularly common among those patients seeking specialized treatments in areas of sight restoration, diagnostic imaging scan, cardiac surgery and joint replacement.
Long Waiting Time. Survey after survey conducted on the Canadian healthcare and its challenges put waiting time at the top of their list of concerns. This is an area in which Canada scores very low as compared to many other nations despite the fact that the same country ranks highly when it comes to basic healthcare. A Commonwealth survey conducted in 2010 for instance put the percentage of patients waiting for specialists for a period of four weeks at 59% which is double that of United States.
The shortage of health professionals is also a challenge in health sector. There is evidence of brain drain where some doctors are known to cross borders to the United States where the pay is considered to be slightly better. This contributes to shortage in the number of doctors available to take care of patients particularly those suffering from chronic diseases.
The Shortage of Doctors and other Medical Specialists. Canada has experienced brain drain in regards to medical professionals. Many health specialists have been crossing the border to United States where they earn much more as compared to their home country. This in turn has contributed to increase in doctor to patient ratio and is considered to be one of the major contributor to long waiting time. As much as the numbers of doctors immigrating to United States is relatively small, the impact such a migration leaves is heavily felt in the health sector.
Nurses on the other hand have continuously expressed their dissatisfaction as they want the number of nurses significantly increased. Improvement in nursing education and maximization of the scope of nursing practice also form parts of their demands. Such shortages in numbers of doctors and nurses only increases the wait time in public hospitals.
All these challenges in addition to smaller ones like shortage of beds in wards in a significant numbers of public hospitals and the concern that budgetary allocation towards this health policy put a lot of strains in this the economy increases concerns as to whether this policy will be sustainable in the long run.
Despite these shortcomings, many Canadians still value their health system very much and would prefer that the problems with universal healthcare in Canada are addressed rather than the whole system being shut down. Those in favor of the radical measures in correcting the system are still the majority according to a poll conducted in 2007 by Queens University Kingston, Ontario.
This is revealed in the reports showing the agony most of the patients goes through when accessing healthcare. These challenges that threaten to render the whole system unsustainable in the long run. There is a call to redesign the system in order to address the current weaknesses.
The average time a patient will wait for a doctor is very long as indicated by 59% of respondents in one survey who reveals that they take an average of four weeks before they can get to see the doctor. This situation is particularly common among those patients seeking specialized treatments in areas of sight restoration, diagnostic imaging scan, cardiac surgery and joint replacement.
Long Waiting Time. Survey after survey conducted on the Canadian healthcare and its challenges put waiting time at the top of their list of concerns. This is an area in which Canada scores very low as compared to many other nations despite the fact that the same country ranks highly when it comes to basic healthcare. A Commonwealth survey conducted in 2010 for instance put the percentage of patients waiting for specialists for a period of four weeks at 59% which is double that of United States.
The shortage of health professionals is also a challenge in health sector. There is evidence of brain drain where some doctors are known to cross borders to the United States where the pay is considered to be slightly better. This contributes to shortage in the number of doctors available to take care of patients particularly those suffering from chronic diseases.
The Shortage of Doctors and other Medical Specialists. Canada has experienced brain drain in regards to medical professionals. Many health specialists have been crossing the border to United States where they earn much more as compared to their home country. This in turn has contributed to increase in doctor to patient ratio and is considered to be one of the major contributor to long waiting time. As much as the numbers of doctors immigrating to United States is relatively small, the impact such a migration leaves is heavily felt in the health sector.
Nurses on the other hand have continuously expressed their dissatisfaction as they want the number of nurses significantly increased. Improvement in nursing education and maximization of the scope of nursing practice also form parts of their demands. Such shortages in numbers of doctors and nurses only increases the wait time in public hospitals.
All these challenges in addition to smaller ones like shortage of beds in wards in a significant numbers of public hospitals and the concern that budgetary allocation towards this health policy put a lot of strains in this the economy increases concerns as to whether this policy will be sustainable in the long run.
Despite these shortcomings, many Canadians still value their health system very much and would prefer that the problems with universal healthcare in Canada are addressed rather than the whole system being shut down. Those in favor of the radical measures in correcting the system are still the majority according to a poll conducted in 2007 by Queens University Kingston, Ontario.
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