Family Medicine

According to a poll commissioned by the College of Family Physicians of Canada, two million Canadians failed to find a family physician last year.  Also of note: that statistic only counts those who tried to find one; the College estimates that there are five million Canadians who do not have a regular family doctor.

The article states that there are insufficient family doctors, and speculates that the reason behind this is a financial one: family physicians make less money than specialists.  The College added that the problem is also the Canadian health care model, which has a focus on episodic (or quantity of) care instead of the quality of care.  For their part, the College is recommending the implementation of a nursing system to help the doctors provide improved care, which would theoretically make family medicine more attractive.

While it paints doctors in much less negative light to say they shy away from family medicine because they cannot provide the same level of care, I find it hard to believe that the majority of medical school graduates are as idealistic and altruistic as that.  Dress it up how you will, but the bottom line here is money.  If it is more lucrative to practice family medicine, it will lure specialists back to family practices.

And there is a good reason to improve the pay for family medicine: for every preventative measure, for every early detection (both of which are the product of properly functioning family practice), there are fewer specialist calls, fewer major surgeries, fewer cases requiring long-term care.

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Comments

[Laural]

I totally agree with raising the pay. Not only does it save money as far as hospital care, etc, it also saves money all around. Employers are happier, insurance rates could be lowered (who knows if they would) due to less long-term care, and I think the country would be well respected for the initiative.

[Don Mills Diva]

I agree they should make more money too. My husband's doctor of almost 25 years is leaving family practice to do full-time dermatology because it is more $ and way less hassle. He has no one to refer Rob to and we cannot find another doctor. It is a nightmare, especially since we know there are foreign-trained doctors driving cabs in this country - we have had some serious illnesses to deal with in the last few years and I could tell stories about how the system has failed that would curl your hair. It's a joke.