Canadian Health

As most of you know, the purpose for our coming to Montreal with one-and-a-half kids was to further my training in a procedure called EUS (endoscopic ultrasound). Yes, feel free to take a nap now or continue your internet surfing if that topic just made you yawn.

So far, my experience at L'hopital St Luc has been phenomenal and well worth the trip. As a result of the Canadian healthcare system (which is government-run), the EUS center at St Luc is the busiest in the world with two of the most highly trained endosonographers around. Between the hours of 8:30 to 3:30 with a one hour lunch break (yes, socialized medicine isn't all that bad), we are able to perform between 10-12 cases a day. To put this in perspective, the busiest centers in Texas do about 60-80 cases a month compared with 200+ at St Luc.

The waiting time to see a gastroenterologist for non-urgent problems is around a year. Screening colonoscopy is not really an option due to the lack of man- power. No private rooms here...you can count on having 2 roommates if you have to stay overnight. Also, the government decides where you can work. If a physician group is desperate to hire another MD, they have to first get government approval. As expected, this has more to do with politics than the needs of a hospital. Most of the time, a younger physician needs to wait for an older one to retire before being hired. In general, the medical care I've witnessed is good. Little is wasted and top-notch therapy is available to those who can afford to wait...and wait. But hey, its free right?

Ahhhh....this ends the medical talk. Gotta go, Canadian Idol is about to start and I can't wait to see who they'll vote off next. Heh..heh...Canadian Idol, that cracks me up.