Prolific Offenders, Road Maintenance and Health Issues Before UBCM
Monday, August 26, 2013 @ 3:59 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The Union of BC Municipalities convention this year will deal with the lowest number of resolutions in more than a decade. Just 156 resolutions have been submitted from BC communities and Regional Districts for approval, the lowest number since 2001.
The City of Prince George has submitted just one resolution, calling for a provincial commitment to technical and engineering education. The Regional District of Fraser Fort George did not submit any resolutions before the June 30th deadline.
The matter of prolific offenders comes in a resolution from Willams Lake. The resolution says the criminal justice system does not allow judges to consider previous convictions in making judgments for an individual charge, so that results in the same offender’s multiple incidents being treated as separate cases. Williams Lake is asking it’s UBCM colleagues to support calling on the Provincial and Federal Ministers of Justice to “make changes to allow consideration of the prolific nature of offenders during prosecution.”
Health care, particularly in rural B.C., is another hot topic.
There are resolutions calling for rural physician recruitment, an improved air ambulance system in the north, and changes that would see the Province providing funding for respite and hospice care.
The matter of medicinal marijuana grow ops is also on the agenda, again. The UBCM is being asked to endorse a resolution that calls for federal resources to conduct regular inspections of such operations. ( see previous story).
Highway maintenance standards are also back before the UBCM. A resolution from Kitimat Stikine calls for a review and revision of maintenance standards “to meet public safety needs.”
The UBCM is set for September 16th through the 20th at the Vancouver Convention Centre
Comments
“There are resolutions calling for rural physician recruitment”
I thought the Northern Medical Program was taking care of that? Are they not graduating enough doctors or are the graduates deciding that they would rather work in larger urban centres, much like the majority of doctors in the country?
I have been looking at some stats regarding rate of physicians per population and the numbers for BC have been getting better, but the rate of improvement is one of the worst in Canada.
The Northern Physicians program in Ontario seems to have been a success so far, while I can find no real comparable data for the Northern Health Authority region.
PG is likely okay due to the university program being here and some of the doctors are attached to that for clinical and office practice aspects of the training.
While the number of doctors per 100,000 population has been increasing over the decades, the workday of physicians has been decreasing. So, in PG, with the university here, some have been spending time with that and thus have less time for patients, yet are still counted in the statistical report.
I’ll post some numbers I found before this thread shuts down like Snowhite’s coach … ;-)
1986 provincial physicians per 100,000 population
BC had the most followed by Quebec and Ontario. The three were the only provinces above the national average. Alberta was 6th with more than 20% less than BC
BC190
QC186
ON177
Canada173
NS172
MB169
AB150
NL147
SK138
PE136
NB118
YT115
NT84
In 2011 the breakdown changed to this:
NS240
NL231
QC231
AB216
NB213
BC212
Canada209
YT201
MB198
ON195
SK181
PE178
NT88
NU42
BC is still above the Canadian average, but it has moved to 6th place and Alberta has moved ahead to 4th.
One more
NB80.5%
YT74.8%
NL57.1%
AB44.0%
NS39.5%
SK31.2%
PE30.9%
QC24.2%
Canada20.8%
MB17.2%
BC11.6%
ON10.2%
NT4.8%
That shows the percent change from 1986 to 2011. New Brunswick leads the pack. Eight provinces improved more than the Canadian average change of 20.8%. BC and Ontario changed only half as much as the Canadian average.
So, if there is any change in BC as a result of the increase in medical spaces at University, it has not moved through the system yet. BC waited too long with doing nothing about the issue. In fact, they apparently reduced spaces
Data source is CMA at http://www.cma.ca/multimedia/CMA/Content_Images/Inside_cma/Statistics/12-Phys_per_pop.pdf
The following provides a comparison with the USA and selected countries in the world
The national rate in the USA is 267/100,000 population
The highest state is Massachusetts at 462
The lowest is Oklahoma at 172
Data source http://www.census.gov/statab/ranks/rank18.html
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Selected world figures of physicians/100,000 population
Austria 486
Russian Federation 431
Norway 416
Switzerland 408
Sweden 387
Germany 369
United Kingdom 277
New Zealand 274
USA 242
Japan 214
Canada 207
Mexico 196
South Africa 76
India 65
Data source = Kaiser Family Foundation (years vary by span of 7 years)
http://kff.org/global-indicator/physicians
Finally, addressing the notion that the UBC medical program at UNBC is helping the north recruit new graduates has not been corroborated yet, I believe.
However, a similar program in Northwestern Ontario centred on Thunder Bay and Sudbury has some indication that their program is helping to retain grads in the north.
The following are some excerpts from an article entitled: “Report shows more doctors per capita in the northwest”
“A new report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information said that the number of doctors in northwestern Ontario is higher per capita than in recent years, and is on the rise, despite the number of people who remain without a family doctor.
“There are now 116 family doctors for every 100,000 people in the region and, this is largely attributed to the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. According to the institute that number is 18 more doctors per capita than five years ago. The Canadian average is 106 doctors per 100,000 people. (this is family physicians and does not include specialists)
“Because we’ve been recruiting students who come from northern Ontario and then providing the residency training in northern Ontario, more of those doctors are choosing to practice in Thunder Bay and the region,â said Dr. Roger Strasser, the schoolâs dean.
source = http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/story/2012/11/16/tby-cihi-report.html
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