Downgrading doctors
One of the key underpinnings of change in health-care delivery in Nova Scotia is to reduce the status of physicians.
It is a goal of Stephen McNeil’s — and columnist Bill Black should not be so naïve as to think otherwise.
The McNeil government has made it clear how it views doctors. It has ignored their voices. It favours the input of accountants over doctors on the Nova Scotia Health Authority board.
You ask, “What do accountants have to do with health-care delivery?” It’s all about the money, silly.
That’s why we’re hearing suggestions about family doctors with “one year of extra training” becoming anesthetists. Or clinical “assistants” in Mental Health and Addiction filling the void of the truly trained in mental health.
That’s why the “collaborative” model is so insisted upon. The belief is that nurse practitioners can in many ways replace doctors. No doubt, we shall soon see all our government members giving up their family doctors, and signing up with their new nurse practitioners.
The key consideration here is equivalency. Nurse practitioners are not equal to doctors in knowledge. And McNeil’s propensity to hire the less-skilled, because it is cheaper, is one of his universal themes.
The problem is that if you keep doing that, you’ll have a province full of incompetent people in fields like education and health where qualifications matter big time.
So Bill Black, those two people you mentioned in your April 27 column were right to be concerned about “further deterioration of the status of physicians.”
Downgrading doctors
One of the key underpinnings of change in health-care delivery in Nova Scotia is to reduce the status of physicians.
It is a goal of Stephen McNeil’s — and columnist Bill Black should not be so naïve as to think otherwise.
The McNeil government has made it clear how it views doctors. It has ignored their voices. It favours the input of accountants over doctors on the Nova Scotia Health Authority board.
You ask, “What do accountants have to do with health-care delivery?” It’s all about the money, silly.
That’s why we’re hearing suggestions about family doctors with “one year of extra training” becoming anesthetists. Or clinical “assistants” in Mental Health and Addiction filling the void of the truly trained in mental health.
That’s why the “collaborative” model is so insisted upon. The belief is that nurse practitioners can in many ways replace doctors. No doubt, we shall soon see all our government members giving up their family doctors, and signing up with their new nurse practitioners.
The key consideration here is equivalency. Nurse practitioners are not equal to doctors in knowledge. And McNeil’s propensity to hire the less-skilled, because it is cheaper, is one of his universal themes.
The problem is that if you keep doing that, you’ll have a province full of incompetent people in fields like education and health where qualifications matter big time.
So Bill Black, those two people you mentioned in your April 27 column were right to be concerned about “further deterioration of the status of physicians.”
Jane MacNeill | May 5, 2019 |