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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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(1)
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first
overcome.
-- Dr. Johnson
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @12:21AM (4 children)
LOL
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:28AM (3 children)
Well, this is true.
Bringing in stinky third-world filth stretches the medical resources of civilized nations to the breaking point. There's the blood from the violence, female genital mutilation, acid-attacks and honor-killings; and more mundane stuff like burns and property damage from fires caused by people drying their clothes in the oven or microwave.
I have said this over and over again, but the only solution to the third-world filth problem is to put them into work camps in exchange for three hots and a cot. Give them rec centers, keep families together, but mandate that those who can work will work or be shot. Any who commit a felony-class crime in the camps will be shot. The ones who survive 5 years of that and behave are allowed to leave and are granted citizenship.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:52AM (2 children)
Fuck! Are you back here being stupid again? I guess stupid is all you know. Please eat a dick and die. Soon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:56AM (1 child)
Except he's trolling people like you and not being stupid. If you seriously think uneducated, sub-Saharan African males are going to be a good fit for Western Liberal democracies then it is you that is being stupid!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @03:50AM
We'll take the sub-Saharan African females, because we can knock them up. Males without wealth are a waste of time and should die.
(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.
(Score: 0, Troll) by cocaine overdose on Saturday March 17 2018, @12:34AM
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:08AM (3 children)
We need to get to where we can imagine a US doctor, hospital, or pharma doing the same thing.
Healthcare needs to be about healthcare, not primarily about wealth transfer.
Congrats to the reasonable folks up North.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:35AM (2 children)
Being a medical doctor started sucking decades ago. Just as there was a saturation of college nursing programs, there was a saturation of law students looking for easy money.
The hours are exhausting and suck shit and you gain a real contempt for humanity because, like being a cop, you're seeing the worst more than the best. Thanks to all those hungry law now-graduates looking for easy money, your malpractice insurance will eat up all that big money you should be making and when you're not working you'll be either drinking yourself to sleep or sleeping.
Yeah, in the movies, you see those hot-shit pediatric neurosurgeons driving their Porsches and day-tripping on their fishing boats. Though to be honest specialist doctors have it a little better than Joe Shit the M.D.
Fun fact - Once worked for a company that made a wand-like thingy with a big loop in the end of it. Its purpose was to help ensure that surgical staff didn't leave any instruments inside their patients.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:55AM (1 child)
You say sooooo many stupid things. Is there anything you aren't stupid at? Serious now. Anything?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @02:40AM
Whatever other talents EF may have, he's damned good at trolling sensitive snowflakes. That was already pointed out above, but you seem to love that trollbait. Keep crying trollbreath.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @01:26AM (1 child)
Nice, but why are canucks such passive-aggressive dicls?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @03:51AM
i dont know, why?
(Score: 4, Informative) by FakeBeldin on Saturday March 17 2018, @12:10PM
Basically, the doctors are pointing to the supporting staff (nurses and others) and stating that they are vastly overworked and that the money for their payrise would be better spend elsewhere.