For the First Time, More Canadian Physicians Are Returning to the Country Than Leaving
Canadian Institute for Health Information
August 24, 2005
New statistics compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) show that for the first time since 1969 (the period for which data are available) more physicians have returned to Canada than moved abroad. In 2004, 317 physicians returned to Canada, and 262 moved abroad. In the period between 2000 and 2004, the number of physicians who left Canada declined by 38%.
“The new data reflect a continuation in the trend we have seen since the mid-1990s of a decreasing number of doctors leaving Canada for opportunities in other countries,” says Steve Slade, consultant on physician databases at CIHI. “The other notable trend is that Canada’s total number of doctors has kept pace with population growth since the late 1990s.”
While the total number of physicians per 100,000 population has remained quite stable, the situation is not the same for both family physicians and specialists. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of family physicians increased from 94 per 100,000 to 98 per 100,000. However the overall number of specialists per 100,000 population declined from 93 to 91 in the same five-year period.
http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=media_24aug2005_e
Full report (139 pages):
http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=PG_385_E&cw_topic=385&cw_rel=AR_14_E
Comment: Opponents of single payer reform will shrug this off as a one-year fluke, but it isn’t. It is a well-documented trend over the past decade that simply passed a threshold this year, resulting in a positive influx of physicians migrating back to Canada.
It would be difficult to attribute this shift to factors such as physician income levels in Canada, or, more simply, the enjoyment of Canadian winters.
More likely, physicians prefer to practice in an environment in which they can advocate for their patients without barriers erected by third party payers or by an inability of the patients to meet out-of-pocket costs – barriers that are characteristic of the U.S. system.
Another major flaw in the health care system in the United States is our weak and rapidly-deteriorating primary care base. Barbara Starfield and others have demonstrated that a strong primary care infrastructure improves quality at a lower cost. Another important trend demonstrated in this study is the renewed emphasis on primary care in Canada.
We can learn much from these Canadian physicians who have checked out “the greatest health care system in the world,” and have decided to go back home.