Getting it Right

Physician human resources planning is the work of ensuring an adequate supply, mix and distribution of physicians in Canada. In other words, we have to plan to ensure that the right kind of doctors, trained to offer the right kind of care, are working in the right parts of the country at the right time. Having too few physicians working in certain areas (eg. rural or northern areas) or certain fields (eg. cardiac surgery) can limit the access that Canadians have to certain types of medical care. The results can include burnout for physicians and long waiting lists for patients.

Challenging Work

Physician human resource planning is made all the more challenging by the fact that it can take seven to 12 years of medical school and residency to train a doctor. Some of the decisions made today will only impact the delivery of health care a decade from now. The work of Task Force Two will benefit Canadians in the short term and for years to come.

The work of developing a human resources strategy for physicians in Canada is also challenging because of a number of other healthcare realities in Canada:

• Our healthcare system is undergoing rapid change to the way care is funded, professionals do their work and patients interact with the healthcare system. Fundamental reforms have been going on for many years and show no signs of slowing down.
  
  
• New ways of delivering health care are being developed and tested across the country. Many of these could have an impact on how many doctors we need, where we need them and how we need them to be trained.
  
  
• Advances in medical technology and treatments are changing the way doctors do their work and, as a result, are forcing us to rethink how we plan physician human resources. For example, some healthcare conditions that used to be treated by family physicians now require the care of a medical specialist. Other conditions that used to require surgery can now be treated with new drugs.
  
  
• The changing population of Canada is also compelling us to rethink physician human resources planning. As a growing proportion of Canadians are aged 60 and older, the demand on our healthcare system will increase and the types of care required will change. For example, the demand for the delivery of babies might go down while the need for knee and hip replacement surgery might increase dramatically.

A New Approach

The challenge of planning physician human resources is nothing new. Attempts have been made in the past to determine how many doctors we will need in the future and what we need to do today to ensure those doctors are there when we need them.

Those attempts were not always successful, however, and as a result Canada is already experiencing shortages of certain types of physicians in certain areas of the country. And, with so many physicians approaching retirement age, the situation could get worse.

The good news for Canadians is that an approach to developing a physician human resources strategy is now well underway and the second phase of a three-phase initiative is now nearing completion. With funding from the Government of Canada and a partnership of medical organizations, Task Force Two is hard at work planning for the future to help ensure that Canadians, in all parts of the country, have access to physicians with the necessary skills and knowledge to respond to the changing face of our healthcare system.