It is a well documented fact that the population is growing older. The baby boom generation is hitting its forties and fifties. Their bodies are breaking down. They require more medical attention. They need those hip replacements, and brain tumors drained. Well.....maybe not quite that old yet. But definitely will be soon. And definite breaking down of bodies.
Now, the thing is, most health care systems around the world were constructed in the fifties and sixties -- a time of boom and prosperity. And a time when the baby boomers were just being born. They were not designed to be able to handle the strain under which they are being put. Now, there are different ways to take to deal with the situation. Many many countries around the world are facing this problem, and they all take unique ways to combat it. There is in fact an excellent book that I never finished reading, that deals with these issues. Called Four Strong Winds, and it's by somebody whose name escapes me at the moment. Anyways, none of these approaches is really working.
In Canada, particularly in BC, we aren't really taking any of these approaches. The British Columbian government is pretty much taking an attitude of "fuck it". What are they doing? Nothing. They're pretty much letting hospitals run down, and staffing levels be cut. They're in fact screwing up royally. One funny (in a grotesque sort of way) story is about this Japanese woman. She came from Japan to train in Canada as a nurse. Having been trained, she then went back to Japan to work for a few years. Now she wants to work in BC as a nurse. BC will not permit her to immigrate here to work. Their reason? Nursing was not a desired profession on their list. BC immigration is publishing literature that BC does not need more nurses? At a time when the plight of nurses -- overworked and underpaid, when there is an acute shortage of nurses, when there aren't enough nurses to care for emergency ward patients in Pitt Meadows.....BC does not need more nurses. Is there perhaps something wrong with this picture? Good lord. But this is probably a separate issue that I've become sidetracked on. More on this another day.
The moral of the story? Health care in this province is hard to come by.