Published: February 17, 2014, 4:32 pm
OTTAWA — More than 100 stakeholders in the medical profession are gathering in Ottawa this week to discuss a paradoxical issue affecting health care in Canada: a growing number of doctors without jobs.
The National Summit on Physician Employment, to be held Tuesday and Wednesday, was organized by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in response to a study it released last fall that found 16 per cent of specialist physicians are unable to find work in Canada.
The college’s Danielle Frechette, who organized the summit, said the phenomenon of unemployed or underemployed physicians is particularly vexing as Canadians continue to face long wait times for medical procedures.
“I keep declaring a conflict of interest in this research: I waited over a year for a new hip so I’m really keen to find solutions for all of us,” she told Postmedia News on Monday. “I am not sure that we’re really organizing our resources as optimally as we could so that we could find work for everyone and shorten wait times.”
In fact, a glut of doctors is not among factors cited in the report for the employment challenges facing young specialists, Frechette said.
Rather, a primary culprit is poor economic performance that has affected both investment in hospital resources such as operating rooms and the retirement portfolios of older physicians who are staying in the workforce longer.
The move towards interprofessional models of care — which increase reliance on other health care providers in place of doctors — and inadequate career counselling for medical students about where and what available work there is were also factors.
Chief among the goals at the summit, which is to be attended by representatives of medical, educational and government entities, will be to uncover any remaining causes for employment challenges and to start the ball rolling toward establishing a national strategy to direct health-care professionals in the future, Frechette said.
“We really need a pan-Canadian approach to address the health-care workforce in Canada.”
Right now, medical faculties exist in eight provinces and intake into programs is based on regional needs. But there is growing acknowledgment among the medical field that that practice ignores the preeminent reality of today’s economy: “The workforce moves,” Frechette said.
And there are already fears of a “brain drain” spurred by young doctors choosing to leave Canada in search of work.
Models for a national approach to health-care workers exist in both the United Kingdom and Australia, which is a good case study for Canada because it is also a confederation, she added. Summit delegates will be examining those models as they begin the long process of brainstorming a solution that will benefit all Canadians.
“The summit’s not to try to fix the problem for the doctors, it’s really about how can we come together to serve the needs of the public.”
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