An article in this week’s issue of Maclean’s magazine addresses the doctor shortage plaguing Canadian health care. The article points to a growing number of female doctors it claims fuel the crisis because they statistically work fewer hours than their male counterparts.
Then there’s the problem of maternity leave—the article profiles several cities whose patients have been “orphaned” when their regional doctors leave their practices to raise children.
With baby boomers aging quickly, health care demands are expected to increase over the next few decades. Simultaneously, more females are in medical school and are expected to represent 40 per cent of the health industry’s workforce by 2015. The article highlights the increased shortages the industry faces as a result of maternity leaves.
Although Maclean’s intentions may have been to shed light on a prevalent national issue, this article offers a shortsighted perspective on a complex problem.
The article fails to emphasize other sources contributing to the crisis, such as restrictions preventing foreign-trained doctors from practicing and a growing demand for specialized doctors.
Establishing programs to standardize practices for individuals trained abroad would improve Canada’s suffering health sector more than discouraging female doctors from having children—as this article seems to be doing. There’s little motivation for medical school students to become general physicians because of comparatively lower pay and longer hours but Maclean’s ignores this as a significant factor.
Instead of lamenting the influx of women entering Canada’s medical workforce, it might be worth noting how many of those same women—and men—head to the U.S. to practice. The article dedicates a mere paragraph to the implications of the 4,000 Canadian physicians who went south between 1993 and 2004. Whether one or 1,000 of those doctors are women is irrelevant if they aren’t available to Canadians in the first place.
By presenting data that blames the physician shortage on female doctors taking maternity leave, Maclean’s implies the shortage crisis will evaporate if women stop having babies or stay out of the profession altogether. Blaming gender for a problem rooted in educational and political failings is backwards and ignorantly implicates those working to fix the problem.
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