September

In June 2000, 7000 citizens rallied in the Prince George hockey arena to protest their lack of access to physicians and health care. While physician shortages were starting to be felt across the province, they were particularly acute in northern and rural parts of British Columbia. 

At the time, the only medical school in BC—the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia—was accepting 128 students a year into its MD undergraduate program. These students were being selected from a qualified applicant pool of more than 700. 

Match Day 2004: a typical snowy day, not unusual for early spring in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  I logged on to the Canadian Resident Matching Service web site and on the screen in front of me appeared those fateful words that would change my life forever: The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, General Surgery.

I wandered about in a daze until I bumped into one of my classmates.

“Where are you going?” he asked, in reference to my residency destination.

“Vancouver, general surgery,” I replied.

Obtaining a coveted seat in an MD undergraduate pro­gram is not easy. Many highly qualified individuals are not accepted the first time around, and others not at all. With the acceptance rate at a small percentage of submitted applications (between 12% and 17% during the last 3 years at the University of British Columbia), it is easy to understand why so many good individuals are turned away. 

In an era when medical evidence and knowledge are generated at unprecedented speed, health professionals may find it difficult to stay up to date, not just with the burgeoning amount of research, but also with the ever-changing technologies in health care. 

The demands of a busy practice and personal commitments combined with the daunting task of learning how to use new equipment and software can be overwhelming. 

Whether the Canadian medical care system is a defining national characteristic is debatable, but one thing is sure: when planning, Canadians have a tendency to just muddle through. Unfortunately, our health system shows it.

Up to the eyebrows in reports, statistics, letters to the editor, and conversations, not to mention attempts to study the problems by commissions, governments, and appointed non-medical experts, it is hard to be optimistic that an effective and sustainable system of medicare will ever be achieved.

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