I’m a surgical RN in a small hospital. We run 5 to 7 ORs for scheduled surgeries 5 days a week (how many ORs running depends on how many nurses are available to work) ALL the specialities have to share precious OR time. They are: general, urology, plastics, gynecology, ENT, dental, neuro, ophthalmology, and orthopaedics. All of these patients need and deserve to be treated ASAP, but we don’t have the space or staff to keep up with increasing demand as our population grows older. Almost every day, TWO of our ORs are dedicated to orthopaedics alone. This means the other services only have access to the OR once a week, maybe twice if we are running at full capacity. We (Nurses Union) have been yelling at the Provincial Government for YEARS, warning them about this. We were either ignored or tutted at as if we were a bunch of hysterical women. 40% of RNs currently working will be eligible to retire in 5 years. If you think it’s bad now, just wait. Once we’re gone, everyone is screwed, including us. Little wonder why MAID is legal here.
That’s a fair interpretation. I’m all for well managed immigration, but we went too hard, too fast on immigration and accepting international students. It’s not just housing, healthcare has reached the breaking point as well. We need to tap the brakes on these issues and SLAM the brakes on foreign investors hording Canadian properties. I know some processes to deal with all this have begun, but yeah, it’s going to be MANY years before we come out of this.