How this provincial government has managed to evade its fundamental responsibility to provide health care astounds me.
Access to general practitioners is central to preventative health care. The capital region has 60,000 to 70,000 people without a doctor. Senior citizens with complex health conditions are stranded without medical support.
The current system provides no incentives for newly graduated doctors to enter general practice in urban areas. Hospitalists earn 60 per cent more than GPs and they have no overhead expenses. Rural GPs are paid more than urban practitioners 鈥� a good concept in the past.
The system is clearly broken and the remaining urban doctors are bearing the brunt of critical patient overload. Newly graduated doctors are not staying in Victoria. We have attracted only a handful of new GPs in recent years.
British Columbia is a wealthy province. Surely we can solve this problem, which is central to the health of our citizens.
Tony Earle
Victoria
