A demand-based assessment of the Canadian anesthesia workforce — 2002 through 2007

Abstract

This is the first study to survey a national census of "consumers" of anesthetic services: Canadian health care facilities. The results indicate substantial current and worsening future shortages of anesthesia providers in Canada.

Ľavenir des départements universitaires ďanesthésie au Canada

“…Currently, academic and community hospitals have shortages of 10 to 15% in meeting this requirement. 5 The traditional model has failed over the last decade because the training centres, academic hospitals, could not provide an alternative to meet the current and likely increasing demand for anesthesia. Worse, the difficulty in providing clinical anesthesia has caused the teaching hospital personnel to relinquish their academic roles to provide clinical service.…”

“…We are inadequately positioned to meet the demand of the baby-boomer population for increased access to health care in the next decade. 5 The role of the academic department The role of academic departments has not changed. They act to store existing knowledge, to create new knowledge and, in Canada, to train future anesthesiologists.…”

Insights into the evolving demographics of anesthesia human resources in Canada

“…The past two decades in Canada were seen as a period of widespread shortage of anesthesiologists [2][3][4] during which a number of system changes occurred. These system changes affected patients (with growing wait times for surgery) and involved governments (increased expenditures on physician reimbursement and mandated labour mobility acts), hospitals (increased use of the Anesthesia Care Team model), A teaching institutions (distributed medical education and new remote university departments and programs), educational and regulatory colleges (increased eligibility of international graduates to Royal College examinations and National Standards for accreditation), and certainly anesthesiologists who devote the best part of their lives to the profession.…”

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: wait times for multidisciplinary pain clinics in Canada

“…The expectation for leadership in the organization of Pain Services will fall on these newlytrained anesthesiologists who are simultaneously facing critical personnel shortages in the provision of operating room anesthesia and critical care medicine in our intensive care units. 8 These logistical issues are considerable and will require creative solutions on all fronts, including collaboration with related disciplines of medicine.…”

“…On se tournera naturellement vers ces anesthésiologistes nouvellement formés pour qu'ils prennent en charge l'organisation des Services de la douleur, tout en souffrant simultanément des pénuries de personnel critique pour fournir les services d'anesthésie en salle d'opération et de médecine intensiviste dans les unités de soins intensifs. 8 Ces problèmes logistiques sont considérables et nécessiteront des solutions créatives de tous les fronts, y compris la collaboration avec d'autres disciplines médicales liées.…”