Another thing that can help to alleviate the pressure on our system is multi-disciplinary health teams. Up until my semi-retirement a few years ago, I had always worked in this environment. We were a mix of MDs, NDs, TCMPs, nurses, and councillors. (I was the TCMP). This was a fantastic and intellectually stimulating environment to work in and very effective in healing people. There has been too much adversarialism and distain by the medical profession towards this approach. The bureaucracy also hasn’t helped. The system you describe is, for the most part, only MD focused and unfortunately dominated by bureaucratic “protocols”, lack of accountability of the pharmaceutical companies and not patient centred.
In my last administrative job, I spent 5 years championing interdisciplinary team-based care. Yes, there was initial resistance from the docs, and it took a year or two to get things moving. In the last year, just as things were really taking off, the government pulled the rug right out from under us and cancelled the funding, without notice. We were left with a whole bunch of docs ready and willing, but unable to proceed for lack of funds. My sense is that the model would have proven effective, given time, but it was a cultural shift.
In my own practice, I worked with a nurse, and it was definitely effective. I could provide better care to more people, more efficiently. I paid for her out of my clinical billings, but the added productivity effectively made it cost neutral for me.
Another thing that can help to alleviate the pressure on our system is multi-disciplinary health teams. Up until my semi-retirement a few years ago, I had always worked in this environment. We were a mix of MDs, NDs, TCMPs, nurses, and councillors. (I was the TCMP). This was a fantastic and intellectually stimulating environment to work in and very effective in healing people. There has been too much adversarialism and distain by the medical profession towards this approach. The bureaucracy also hasn’t helped. The system you describe is, for the most part, only MD focused and unfortunately dominated by bureaucratic “protocols”, lack of accountability of the pharmaceutical companies and not patient centred.
In my last administrative job, I spent 5 years championing interdisciplinary team-based care. Yes, there was initial resistance from the docs, and it took a year or two to get things moving. In the last year, just as things were really taking off, the government pulled the rug right out from under us and cancelled the funding, without notice. We were left with a whole bunch of docs ready and willing, but unable to proceed for lack of funds. My sense is that the model would have proven effective, given time, but it was a cultural shift.
In my own practice, I worked with a nurse, and it was definitely effective. I could provide better care to more people, more efficiently. I paid for her out of my clinical billings, but the added productivity effectively made it cost neutral for me.