Calls for national strategy as one B.C. practitioner says lack of anesthesiologists is ‘provincewide problem’
[Excerpt]Canadians living in rural or remote communities are at risk of poorer health outcomes due to a shortage of anesthesia services, say researchers calling for a national strategy to address inequitable access to care.
Dr. Beverley Orser, chair of the department of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Toronto’s faculty of medicine, said pregnant women in some areas must travel hundreds of kilometres for maternity services.
Patients who suffer serious injuries are at greater risk of dying in rural areas that lack adequate trauma care, she said.
Orser and Dr. Ruth Wilson, professor emeritus at the department of family medicine at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., have authored a commentary in this week’s edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, outlining strategies aimed at addressing inequities in care for rural patients compared with those who live in cities.
B.C. patients forced to travel for treatment
An ongoing shortage of anesthesiologists seems be worsening across the country as evidenced by job ads going unanswered, an aging workforce and discussions among those chairing anesthesia departments at Canada’s 17 medical schools, said Orser, who is also an anesthesiologist at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, which has the largest trauma facility in Canada.
Read more at: Rural Canadians face greater disparities from lack of anesthesia care, doctors say
