Recent comments in /f/dataisbeautiful

OneLessFool t1_jdkbo0b wrote

Reply to comment by snakesoup88 in [OC] Number of physicians per 1000 residents by giteam

No, that's only a small part of it.

It's because we stopped expanding the number of medical graduates and residencies (not just doctors either) to keep up with population growth. 40 years ago we had over 6 doctors per 1000 people. But then we started voting for people like Mulroney and Chrétien and it was all downhill from there as we slowly destroyed public services and crown corps in favour of neoliberal economics.

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OneLessFool t1_jdkbd1i wrote

Reply to comment by Derpazor1 in [OC] Number of physicians per 1000 residents by giteam

It's insane because a little over 40 years ago we had over 6 doctors per 1000. But we collectively decided to vote in austerity lovers at the federal and provincial level like Mulroney and Chrétien. We stopped expanding the number of med school positions and residencies to match population growth. We stopped investing in public assets, stopped building public housing, sold off lucrative and beneficial public assets to "balance the budget" one random year every few years. The end result is a housing and healthcare system in rapid decline.

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broyoyoyoyo t1_jdk9qwe wrote

Reply to comment by HappiHappiHappi in [OC] Number of physicians per 1000 residents by giteam

Oh yeah, sounds familiar for sure. There are some legitimate bottlenecks for increasing the residency spots (the number of residency spots you can open is limited by the number of doctors you already have), but there's a lot of other nonsense. We bring in a lot of immigrant doctors and give them no streamlined way to convert their credentials so they can work here, so a lot of them just end up driving taxis.

Medical school here is insanely competitive, so much so that a lot of brilliant students don't bother with it at all (you risk doing 4 years in Life/Health Science and then getting fucked when you don't get into Med School).

Not to mention that it takes an absurdly long to become a doctor here. 4 years undergrad + 4 years med school + 3 years internship + another 2 years internship if you want to specialize. Why don't we streamline the process by cutting out the undergrad like most countries? Because, like you say, some think it'll dilute the quality of our doctors, which is nonsense since it takes less time to become a doctor in most countries where healthcare is just as good.

Holding the profession up on too high a pedestal is preventing Canadians from receiving adequate healthcare.

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charredutensil t1_jdk7cwy wrote

Reply to comment by EqualityZucchini in [OC] Retro Activities People Currently Still Do bucketed by Age by Square_Tea4916

90's kid here. I once used an auto-pay system where the $5 charge for "convenience" went through, but the actual payment didn't. It didn't even attempt to notify me about the failed payment, and I had more than enough money in the account. Bank didn't even have a record of the payment being attempted. I got hit with $300 in late fees.

Since then, I pull out an honest to God typewriter and type up a check. I cackle with glee at every key I push with full force, knowing full well a human being has to be paid to physically open the envelope, read the paper, and retype the information into a computer. Plus, I get to support the Post Office.

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