Health care has always been rationed in Canada.
I suppose.
Only the seriously sick are attended to right away (i.e. emergencies) and even then, it's rationed to some extent.
Not sure about other provinces; here in NB there's a 1-5 Triage scale. 1 and 2 are serious and need to be seen ASAP, 3-5 are not so bad and can wait. But when you think about it, it makes sense. Why should a person coming in for a note for work be seen over someone having a heart attack or who cut their finger off?
That said, seeing an emerg doctor for said doctor's note is fucking stupid, but it happens all the time because people can't get into their family doc OR they have no family doc.
That's why the wait times are so long in every province. It's a form of 'rationing'. In addition to rationing individuals, we also ration doctors.
Rationing, delegating who needs to be seen first; again, not a bad thing.
The college of physicians & surgeons have control over how many doctors there are in training - we need more but they won't increase available spaces for whatever reason & it certainly doesn't help with the long wait times when there are those who don't have a doctor to begin with.
In NB it's moreso the "Billing Numbers", aka the available positions for doctors in the province. A new doc can't get a 'number' until one retires, dies or moves away. That said it's stupid to play that kind of game as you're right, it limits doctors and does nothing for wait times. Some docs around here have 1.5K patients which is just insane.
That's why foreign trained doctors have such a hard time getting certification in this country - it's the College that determines how many doctors will be accepted each year & it's detrimental to everyone.
Sadly true enough. And when they get their Doctor's, it's more waiting. IMO it's even harder for foreign doctors coming in. There needs to be a better way to handle doctors coming in from other countries to get them working as a doctor and not a fucking pizza delivery guy or taxi driver.
It's our own fault though for the brain drain; we don't offer enough for GP's vs. the pressure and stress they get put under. If there were more GP's then there'd be less patients per GP. But GP's aren't "Sexy" enough (aka make lots of money) to be viable. Throw in the costs of tuition it's better TO go specialist to pay that shit off sooner. In any case it sucks all around.