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The Guardian reports doctors from Quebec have published an open letter demanding better allocation of public funds.
"We, Quebec doctors, are asking that the salary increases granted to physicians be cancelled and that the resources of the system be better distributed for the good of healthcare workers," reads the open letter.
It was drafted late last month by Médecins québécois pour le régime public, a group of doctors and medical students who support public healthcare.
So far the letter has attracted some 800 signatures from people with a spine and media attention.
Additional coverage on The New York Times, BBC News and The Washington Post
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Canadian Doctors: Cancel Our Pay Rise and Spend Money Elsewhere
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You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 17 2018, @12:29AM (7 children)
Bonita pointed out to me that it's quite common for the Canadian government to go to colossal expense to educate prospective doctors, who then go to the US because they can get paid more here.
Her suggested solution is to contractually obligate Canadian medical school students to practice in Canada for a number of years.
Consider that in 2003, a routine office visit cost me CDN$25.00. At the time in the US it would have been USD$100.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by vux984 on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:39AM (2 children)
Canada already has a system for this:
https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/education/student-loan-forgiveness.html [canada.ca]
Its a good program, and I think they've found that placement retention is pretty decent too, as the people put down roots, establish connections, and then want to stay with the communities. I know there's something like this for teachers too? (And even in the USA too.)
It should probably be expanded and reworked a bit, but it could be used to help keep specialized surgeons in Canada. In particular it should be reworked so that Dr.s trained in Canada actually see the investments in them, recorded as something they 'owe'; but which is forgiven over time if they practice in the country; and called in as payable due if they decide to move and practice outside the country. Basically... if you get you education subsidized by Canadian taxpayers, you can keep it if you practice in Canada, but would have to pay the subsidies back if you don't.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @03:47AM
There are a couple of programs that teachers can use to qualify for loan forgiveness in the US. However, some of the requirements are quite strict, which has lead to the government and employers trying to play different shenanigans. But, people managed to fight through anyway and then, the Department of Education under DeVos decided that they didn't want to authorize any forgiveness of loans. And keep in mind that forgiven debt is considered income, so even if you did qualify, you had to pay income tax on the amount.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 18 2018, @01:00AM
US military does something like that, too. They'll pay for your medical school, and in exchange you have to enlist for several years (I can't remember the exact number) and be a military doctor.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @02:34AM (1 child)
contractually obligate Canadian medical school students to practice in Canada for a number of years
You're reminding me of the comedy-drama Northern Exposure. [wikipedia.org]
As a condition of his student loan, a NYC guy has to serve a quirky small town in Alaska.
The series won a bunch of awards over its 6-year run.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Saturday March 17 2018, @06:45PM
The actual series: https://archive.org/details/NorthernExposureAllTheSeasons [archive.org]
Though it's missing some of the original music (more on that here: https://vimeo.com/89246120). [vimeo.com] It's rumored the German DVD box set titled "Ausgerechnet Alaska - Die komplette Serie in limitierter Holzbox" comes with the original English audio tracks (and sadly the occasional German hard-coded subs): https://www.amazon.de/Ausgerechnet-Alaska-komplette-limitierter-Holzbox/dp/B015CL3K1C/ref=pd_cp_74_1 [amazon.de]
I guess a dedicated/desperate enough fan could mux the original audio tracks off the German DVDs into a video rip from the American release...
compiling...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @02:39AM
Here's a story I learned about modern medicine from a good friend of mine. I'll call him Jack here, just to keep things safe. Jack worked at a hospital. By day, he was a small time programmer for the hospital, and by night he managed prostitutes. Yeah, he's that kind of guy. Anyway, he was slowly working on getting his online degree in chemical mathematics when, one day during his day job, he met his first encounter with Just-In-Time Compilation. He was pretty new to this concept, but he realized the potential to expand JIT beyond merely programming. Right around this time he started putting less effort into his programming, opting to focus more on his degree. He was starting to specialize in topics he didn't even need for his degree. Groundbreaking topics. Jack knew he was going to change the world...if his theory panned out.
Fast forward about 8 years. Kids in his area start showing up pregnant, but the police can't find any perpetrators. What's going on, people wondered. Well I'll tell you what, it's Jack. As I mentioned, at night Jack managed the prostitutes at the hospital. This, of course, included the newborn infant prostitutes in the hospital's newborn nursery. When Jack heard about the pregnancies, he was elated. His theory had proven successful. He rushed to the head administrator of the hospital to announce his discovery.
But just what had Jack done? He invented a medicine which improved the lifetime of his sperm by several decades. Ever since they were in the nursery, those kids have had his sticky tadpole friends wriggling around inside their wombs. As soon as the first egg descended, his tadpoles attacked it without mercy. The future pregnancy was the proof of Jack's discovery. The phenomenon became known as Just-In-Time Impregnation.
Now Jack is known as a hero, not just to his town, but to the whole world. Jack's hospital received a surge of outside funding due to the discovery, and they built a new female care unit, which they named after Jack. Where is he now? He currently sits as the head of the department which governs that unit. There, every woman is utilized as they were intended. Next time, I may tell you the backstory behind the naming of the hospital building conjoined to Jack's: the Nickson File Cabinet Department.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @04:59PM
A doctor gets paid quite a lot already. There is no need to get paid more. But supply of doctors is artificially maintained at a low level to maximize profits for every physician.
https://secure.cihi.ca/free_products/Summary_Report_2015_EN.pdf [secure.cihi.ca]
So even if a family doctor takes off the top $150k/yr for office space and services, that leaves close to $150k. So don't worry, doctors are not starving. The ones that went to US to make more realize quite quickly that all the extra they make is eaten up and more by high costs of litigation insurance, which doesn't really apply in Canada.