10 ms·
> What's the plan? To prevent Canada's shitty health care system from being exposed. We've got like half the capacity of the EU average and multiples less tha
by Mikeb85 5y ago
> What's the plan?
To prevent Canada's shitty health care system from being exposed.
We've got like half the capacity of the EU average and multiples less than the US...
- jollybean 5y agoThis is not true. Hospital beds/capita by nation [1] Moreover, Canada's response to COVID has resulted in considerably fewer deaths, less than 40% the rate of the US. While there are issues with the system overall, this isn't it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_hospital_beds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_hospital_...
- Mikeb85 5y agoIf you live in Canada you should know that hospital beds != capacity since we don't have the staff to operate them. Our actual capacity for Covid patients is far less due to staffing and equipment issues. The EU has twice as many doctors per capita as we do. The US has more everything than we do. Edit - I'd also look at all-cause mortality when the dust settles. Canada currently has an epidemic of late diagnosed cancers right now, for example.
- jollybean 5y agoThis is not true either. In Canada, Hospital beds do map to capacity. The UK, US and Canada have roughly the same ballpark 'beds' and also 'physicians' per capita. In the last 25 years they have taken the policy of 'getting you out', which is rational. After an operation, if you don't have obvious signs of problems, you go home. In Japan, where they have 4x the number of beds, you linger in the Hospital. Maybe a better figure to look at would be the speed of treatment etc.
- Mikeb85 5y agoUK and Japan are among the lowest physicians per capita in the OECD. UK still higher than Canada though. https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2940 https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2940 Anyhow Canada is pretty low on the list, nearly every EU country is higher, as is the UK and US.
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago> The EU has twice as many doctors per capita as we do Just as an FYI, it's often better to look at specific EU countries, as the health systems vary a lot, and one probably doesn't want to compare Bulgaria (as a poorer country) with Germany.
- Mikeb85 5y agoBulgaria has about 1.6 times more doctors per capita as Canada (4 versus 2.5 or so). Just saying...
- disgruntledphd2 5y agoYeah, but my point (and I kinda knew someone would give me flack for the examples) was that there's a massive disparity between different EU countries, so comparing Canada to an EU-average (15, 28, 27?) is unlikely to prove useful.
- Mikeb85 5y agoIt's useful for Canadians to know that the rhetoric coming from our politicians is garbage. Most Canadians buy into the propaganda that we have a world-class health system but the truth is, even the poorest EU countries have better healthcare than we do and the best are miles ahead.
- disgruntledphd2 5y agoYeah, but if you actually want to make decisions based on it, then you shouldn't use an unrepresentative average. Like Ireland (where I live) is far, far closer to the US model than Germany (as an example). EU-level averages disguise such variations, which are useful to understand.
- totony 5y ago>To prevent Canada's shitty health care system from being exposed. That's crisis response, not a plan. A plan requires an end goal, a way to get out of the situation. Ok, we try to keep our already failing healthcare system from failing for a bit longer, how long? is this the best solution (as opposed to a paniced response)? what are we doing to get out of the quarantine-every-4-months cycle? Our "plan" right now seems to be that we get lucky and covid just goes away on its own, but that has not happened for the last 2 years. It's time we start thinking ahead imo EDIT: To clarify, I think crisis response is necessary when a new threat emerges, but after 2 years you shouldn't still be in crisis response