Roughly 4.1 million Canadians aged 12 or older are without a family doctor, either because they can’t find one or haven’t looked, says Statistics Canada.That means about 15 percent of Canadians lack a regular doctor, up three points since 1996, of which almost 1.7 million couldn't find one:
Of those, 64 per cent used walk-in or appointment clinics, 12 per cent went to a hospital emergency room, while about 10 per cent went to a community health centre when they needed medical care.
source: Statistics Canada
Indeed, in many provinces, the number of "family physicians" has lagged population growth:
source: Canadian Institute for Health Information
On top of its doctor shortage, Canadians still wait weeks--and longer than Americans, Germans and Swedes--for cardiac and other specialist consultations. The silver lining? Healthcare in Canada (and almost any developed country) still is far superior to socialized medicine in Britain.
(via Sigmund, Carl & Alfred, twice, Moonbattery)
2 comments:
Those who "haven't looked" for a doctor. When the customer bears no cost for using the system inefficiently, there is no incentive for him to do so. Why bother to go to the trouble of finding a regular doctor? When you need one, you can just walk in.
Poor health habits do not affect the cost of health care anywhere near as much as poor planning habits.
I can agree. I am Toronto life insurance broker so I believe in private insurance. Only thing that can force you to live healthier is your wallet! On the other hand, it's stupid, when preventive care consumes your insurance limit (as often seen in the USA) so you rather choose to wait and hope.
Lorne
Post a Comment