Addressing the Lack of Confidence, Trust and Empowerment in the Newfoundland and Labrador Healthcare System
Anyone who has lived a significant amount of time in Newfoundland and Labrador (henceforth NL) is likely to have at least one distressing, if not tragic, story about their own experience (or the experience of a loved one) with the healthcare system in this province. Sadly, most of these stories involve pain and agony, both in the immediate, temporary sense and the long-term, fatal sense. The table below, provided by CARE , shows the provincial situation to be particularly jarring: So, NL'ers go to doctors more, yet also live much unhealthier and have more general health problems in comparison with the Canadian average. Frequent doctor visits seems to relate to a cultural issue surrounding healthcare in the province. For example, Professor at the MUN School of Medicine and kidney specialist Pat Parfrey has argued on multiple occasions that a large percentage -- up to one fifth -- of NL's healthcare budget is misused on unnecessary tests, prescriptions and proce