Gee, I can't understand this?
The Liberal government tells us that the health system is in good shape and working well.
And they wouldn't lie to us, would they?
Well,it may be ok on the lower mainland but up here it sucks and George(bobblehead) Abbott knows it!
Has he looked at the wait list times up here?
Pretty pathetic system when patients are sent out of their community for care!
I am sure the Northern Health board is doing their best but not much they can do about doctor and nursing shortages.
Only the government can fix that.

Yes sir, the Lieberals have health care under control in BC. There are plenty of Docrors and nurses being recruted, wait times are down and the power problems at PGRH were just a minor glitch. We still haven't had an explanation about the power problems. Got to keep these things secret least they hit the fan and a little brown stuff gets spread around. Here's a secret for you, with wait times supposedly getting shorter; I have just completed a major surgery that I waited over 2 years for. Where is the Provincial Government spending the money Ottawa gave the provinces to help cut wait times? I believe it's called General Revenue which in these times could mean Olympics.

...and that camoose pretty much says it all!
We are victims of politcal spin and Bulls**T!

If only life was that simple. Firstly one of the main reasons there is a shortage on nurses in Prince Rupert, and to some extent Prince George, is that most people do not want to live in these towns. The same thing applies to Doctors. If you had a choice between Kamloops, Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon, Vancouver Island, the Kootneys, and Prince Rupert or Prince George what area would you pick.????

The same thing applies to UNBC. Students are not exactly knocking down the doors to go to University in Prince George. In fact enrollments have been static for the last 5 years, however they are growing steadly in Victoria, Vancouver, Kelowna, and Kamloops.

With TV and Airlines we tend to forget that we live in the middle of nowhere, and Prince Rupert is even worse off, never mind Kitimat or Terrace.

Take a drive out that way sometime, and you will see Canada's version of the Appalachians.

There was a time when Northerners were proud of their ability to exist in trying circumstances, however those days are gone. Its seems now all we can do is complain that the Government is not looking after us. ** I want my mommy **

Anything can be spun. The reason for the shortage of nurses is that the provincial government has underfunded health care so the Health Authorities have either laid off nurses or cut their hours and made them part time. Licensed Practical Nurses, for instance, are one of the groups the Liberals cut back in pay by 15%. Why would you stay working after that?

The shortage of doctors is because not enough are being trained, and the government doesn't want to increase the number too much. Doctors are the gatekeepers, and if there are too many of them too much work is done and costs go up. This is an old approach that has been going on for 20 years or more.

Combined shortages of nurses and doctors (and lab techs and medical imaging techs and physios and all the others) is a good way to restrict costs and avoid taking the blame for it. After all, how can the government be responsible if people don't want to work in hospitals?

The government could have solved the problem years ago if they had kept the training programs going (a lot of them were closed down) and increased the numbers of doctors and nurses being trained (and paid them decently with respect).

All very interesting and certainly shows the variety of opinions. However, how much fact backs up the opinions?

The links provide an analysis of the reason why there is a shortage south of the border.

I agree more with Palopu's points than anyone else's and the links will hopefully show you why. We do have to make our region more attractive to people. Let's look at Edmonton to see why the heck that flat piece of soil in the middle of nowhere is more attractive than this place, other than the fact that it has city amenities ... or Saskatoon, or Regina.

http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/news/detail.asp?t=2&id=19
“The USA's growing shortage -- about 126,000 vacancies -- is forcing several hospital companies to look abroad for relief. About 69,000 Americans became nurses in 2001, far below the 96,000 in 1995 and reflective of the growing inability of U.S. nursing schools to provide enough workers.

Experts expect the shortage to rise, possibly to as many as 800,000 vacancies by 2020, because baby boomers will require more health care than prior, smaller generations.”

http://www.nidd.org/nursing_america.htm
“NIDD launches a new program 'Nursing America' in association with Central Mexican University. NIDD will train qualified Nurses in Mexico and place them in US based hospitals. To achieve this goal, NIDD signed a contract with Central Mexican University in July 2004.”

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2005-06-08-travel-nurse-usat_x.htm
“The travel-nurse concept largely originated to serve "snowbirds" moving from northern to southern states in winters. Several trends point to long-term growth, says Barry Asin, with research firm Staffing Industry Analysts. Baby boomers are aging, requiring more health care. Schools aren't graduating nurses fast enough. California recently mandated a 1-to-5 nurse-patient ratio for the bulk of hospital beds, up from 1-to-6.”

http://www.usaweekend.com/03_issues/030831/030831nurses.html
“You've pressed the call button, but a nurse hasn't arrived. You have a question about a particular medication or procedure, but whom should you ask?
Such situations are "what hospital patients and their families fear the most," says Linda Aiken, RN, a professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. With healthcare/medical staffs stretched to the breaking point nationwide, such patient anxiety has become commonplace at hospitals and long-term-care centers. According to the Center for Health Workforce Studies, 45 states have shortages of quality nurses. And the shortage extends to operating rooms and intensive-care units.”

“More than 126,000 nursing positions in hospitals around the country are unfilled, according to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In addition, the workforce is shrinking, because it's aging (and retiring) at twice the rate of other occupations.”
Look at the dates of some of the articles. This is not an overnight situation. It has been building. Just as the USA stopped recruiting overseas in the early 1990s, we cut back on nursing spaces locally.

So blame those prolific baby boomers who came back after the war and worked their tails off to build up not only the economy in Europe, but also North America.