Just call Health Minister Kevin Falcon.
He seems to think he has all the answers.
Oh,by the way...he would like to be your next Premier.
So would George Abbott,who was in charge of health care in B.C. for far too long.
Abbott was the guy in charge during all the major cuts to healthcare programs and healthcare in general.
Of course,he will tell you there were no cuts.
The difference between available healthcare up here and on the lower mainland, is borderline criminal.
We have had second rate care for far too long,and it is not the fault of the doctors.
We may want to remember this when we get to the ballot box?

With all due respect Andyfreeze, I'm not sure one can really blame the government for the fact that nobody wants to relocate to Burns Lake when they could choose any city in BC or Canada for that matter. Sure, small towns like these will recruit the odd doc who likes the lifestyle, but those docs are in the minority despite what many people in our region seem to think.

To add to those challenges, we also have an old boys club network of docs up here who can be unaccomodatng to new people looking to come in, as well as a Health Authority that is managed in an interesting manner when compared to other places. When you talk to people who work in health care here (especially if they came here from some of the larger centers we are trying to recruit from) they'll give you all sorts of reasons as to why we have a hard time keeping people. Sadly, many of those issues are the sole responsibility of people living here and managing our facilities.

Even doctors who like the lifestyle sometimes end up leaving if they are the only physician in town because they get tired of being on call 24/7.

Do we know what a physician shortage means in terms of numbers?

Burns Lake has a population of around 2,000. The region it serves is what size by population? 3,000? 4,000?

I believe we have 2.2 physicians per 1,000 population in Canada.

So the Burns Lake region should have roughly 6 let's say. I assumed they do not have that many.

This page shows that there are 6 who are listed as accepting new patients.
http://www.bcdoctordirectory.ca/burns-lake

The information might be old.

Prince George should then have about 170-180. The above information shows that we have 193. At 2.2/1,000 population that works for 87,700.

The US has 2.4/1,000 so they would serve a population of 80,400.

Australia has a rate of 2.8/1,000 so there 193 doctors would serve a population of 69,000.

Sweden has a rate of 3.6/1,000 so 193 would serve a population of 53,600.

France and Germany are similar. So by their standard, we are totally underserved. Yet we have the highest life expectancy of all of the others above other than Australia. More than 3 years longer than the USA.

I have treid to find some information of the ratio of doctors to population in the Northern Health region. Nothing after a couple of minutes. Anyone else have an idea?

With all this concern about doctor shortages, there seems to be very little hard information dealing with that.

I think part of it is that doctors are taking their personal lives a bit more seriously and are not loading themselves up with as many patients as they used to at one time.

Perhaps we are moving to the kind of ratios seen in other relatively wealthy countries where practicing medicine, as far as time committment to the job is more approaching that of other professionals.

Tell the folks they might get a NH bus. That oughta keep them docile and away form their pitchforks. It does here in PG. Why not hire a super lawyer and sue the MSP folks for breach of contract? But then again, I don't remember signing a contract with the Medical Services Plan that would make them provide a doctor just because I pay them every month (on time). I don't recollect reading in the MSP brochure I will be guaranteed anything.

The figures for PG are probably misleading since PG serves as a regional centre for more than our own population. That means that not only do physicians here serve more than the local population but that some of them are specialists, who typically will spend more time per patient.

There are at least two reasons that we have greater life expectancy than the US: (a) lower poverty levels; (b) a health care system that, for all its faults, does a much better job of providing health care for the entire population and of providing preventive and early care for the poor, who in the US tend not to get preventive care and who often have to delay care until problems are sufficiently acute to go to the ER.

One more piece of information. Got to look at scraps here instead of getting some proper figures frm the health regions.

The info below is as follows

City population for 2009 as estimated by BC Stats; number of doctors lieted in the page linked in a previous post; ratio of city population per doctor; doctors per 1,000 population

Nanaimo - 84,228: 219: 384: 2.6
Prince George - 74,547: 193: 386: 2.6
Kamloops - 87,017: 212: 410: 2.4

City population taken from this page:
http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/pop/pop/mun/SubProvincialEstimates_2006-2009.xls

There is no doubt that this does relate to money.
The bigger centers get the most money,and the rural area's get the leavings.
It takes money in the budget to have enough doctors.
If the government had it's way,we would all be going to the biggest centers for everything, with only a bandaid stand in the smaller communities.
Understandable to a certian point,but then you Google Northern Health salaries and you see where a very large part of the money is going.
It isn't just about doctors not wanting to come to the north.
It is also about the fact that there are for more financial advantages to be had by working in the larger centers.
Fact of life I suppose.

Billposer ... "The figures for PG are probably misleading since PG serves as a regional centre for more than our own population"

I agree, but that is true for all communities whether is is a small one like McBride, a Burns Lake, a Quesnel, a PG, a Vancouver - every single one of them serves more than the population of the community where the physicians are located.

A place like Vancouver even serves people outside of the province, and even outside the country.

I know one specialist in PG, for instance, who is so good that people come from other parts of Canada for an operation here.

A much better number would be the health region population plus the number of physicians practicing in that health region. That is the number I would want to see from Northern Health, but their site does not show any results for several key word searches that gets plenty of info on google for other areas.

1996 data, but at least national research council has some info on this topic
http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/health/resources/physician/poptophysicianratio1996

What happened to **Train them in the Morth and they will stay in the North**?

Actually NMG, governments are entirely to blame for this. It's the government that forces me by law to enroll in their government health plan. It's the government that pays the doctors and decides what they get paid. It's the government that used to allocate how many doctors could even be trained in Canada in any given year. It's the government as well as the College of Physicians that determines what immigrants can practice medicine in Canada. It's the government that cuts back on health care spending to fund operating rooms and research programs that draw doctors to hospitals.

So with all due respect don't tell me it's the location, Alaska has doctors. When I was younger and heaven forbid the NDP was in power, I always seemed to have a family doctor. Now I do not.

Sorry, but location is a factor. For those who think that it is better with private medicine, look at the US. Sparsely populated areas of the US have serious physician shortages. These include Alaska. Google "physician shortage Alaska" and you'll find articles with titles like "Alaska's physician shortage called 'grim'": http://www.providence.org/alaska/media/coverage/022107a.htm

Ruez, if you don't have a family doctor it generally means that there aren't enough of them choosing to live here to practise their trade. Either that, or they are deciding to take a reduced number of total patients than what doctors may have done in times past.

Also, back in the days when you could easily find a doctor, we probably had more doctors because we had more students willing to be doctors in the decades prior to that. It's not just doctors who are short these days, it's also nurses, lawyers, electricians, accountants, teachers and most every other profession out there. Our population demographics are not doing us any favors and when you have reduced numbers of people wanting to be doctors with and increased need for their services (it's going to get MUCH worse once all the baby boomers start getting up there in age a little more) something has to give.

I'm not sure why people find it so hard to believe that
when someone basically has their pick of where they want to work in the Province, country or world, that places like Burns Lake find it challenging to recruit people, especially when you look at the demographics of many of the doctors that have to fill these positions. Heck, we've lost good doctors in PG is the past because they were Muslim and unable to really practise their faith in our city.

It's not just about funding, it's allot about being able to attract people in an extremely competitive environment.

My mother lives in Ottawa. She is up there in age to the extent that her friends that were doctors plus her longtime family doctor have either died or retired.

She is complaining because she cannot get a GOOD doctor anymore, doctors don't care anymore, long wait lists to get to a doctor, doctors more interested in their golf afternoons off, etc. etc.

She is now going to a walk-in clinic.

As I wrote above, there is an absolutely huge difference in the number of doctors per person in most of the European countries versus Canada and the USA.

Just because there are more doctors does not equate to higher health care costs either. Neither is there a link between the demographics and number of doctors. I think the link is much more with cultural "tradition" as well as the social status of a medical doctor.

I know that while doctors in Germany, for instance, have a relatively high status, it is not as high as in Canada and the USA when compared to Engineers, Architects, University Professors, etc.

I think to solve our "problem" we may have to look more at improving working conditions and increasing the supply which has been kept down by the profession.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_phy_per_1000_peo-physicians-per-1-000-people

Finally found what appears to be good statistical info for Canada.

[ulr]http://www.healthsystemfacts.com/Client/OHA/HSF_LP4W_LND_WebStation.nsf/page/Physicians+per+100000+population+by+province+large[/url]

Click on the menu tabs to the left and you get a lot more statistical info.

BC is number one in Canada for life expectancy at birth.
Lowest number of smokers
Lowest number of obese people
Lowest number of physically inactive people

http://www.healthsystemfacts.com/Client/OHA/HSF_LP4W_LND_WebStation.nsf/page/Physicians+per+100000+population+by+province+large

Long story short. Take care of your health because the government isn't going to help you.

No shortage of dentists or veterinarians. Because they take dental plans, cash, cheque, Visa, M/C or Interac? Hmmmm?

Another reason for a difference between dentists/vets and physicians may be that the emergency demands on them are much less than for physicians. That makes it a lot more attractive for them to be the only one in a town.

Right, a horse or bull can wait till the vet is good and ready.

You may not realize it, but the vets in town rotate the on call duties.

I assume dentists have a similar service. The same goes for Pharmacies, I believe.