Health Care in Canada Shortage of doctors

The shortage of pediatricians currently raging in Quebec wreaked havoc in children's hospitals. In emergencies, we must resort to all sorts of stratagems to arrive to treat patients, many of whom left before seeing a doctor. According to the Federation of Medical Specialists, Pediatricians lacks 59 out of 446 in the province. "The shortage affects everyone," warned the director of the urgency of the Montreal Children's Hospital, Harley Eisman. If untreated "The rubber band is at the end and it is cracked," said his counterpart at Sainte-Justine, Michael Arsenault. Its establishment has held a press conference yesterday to review the serious lack of staff. One in five children leave the urgency of this hospital before seeing the doctor because her parents can no longer wait. In 10 years, Sainte-Justine rose from 58 to less than 25 emergency. Pediatricians other units come lend hand to their colleagues in overtime, but with maternity leave and retirement on the horizon, it is difficult to see light at the end of the tunnel. "For minor problems, be prepared to wait a very long time," warns Dr. Arsenault, who refuses to quantify this expectation. Although that also problematic, the situation is less difficult on the other side of Mount Royal, the Montreal Children's Hospital. Only one patient in 20 starts prior to the urgency of having met the doctor. Mutual The facility employs about twenty emergency but on the contribution of almost 60 pediatricians clinics and other departments, which regularly shifts to the urgency for several years. "They go after their day or when it's quiet in their department." Last year, fearing the impact of the shortage, it has introduced a new triage system in emergency: a fast track for minor cases. "These children see a single nurse triage and are referred to a doctor who deals only with such cases, says Dr. Eisman. So, they monopolize fewer resources. " Ideally, according to two hospitals, is that parents bring their children to clinics or CLSC for minor cases. "An ear infection does not need to be addressed in a university hospital," Dr. Eisman installment.