Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
Canada - World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
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4.0<br />
3.5<br />
3.0<br />
2.5<br />
2.0<br />
1.5<br />
<strong>Health</strong> systems in transition <strong>Canada</strong> 91<br />
During the 1990s, physician supply grew at an annual average of 1.1% – a<br />
rate that would more than double from 2004 to 2009 due in part to the rapid<br />
expansion of places in Canadian medical schools and the influx of international<br />
medical graduates (Watanabe, Comeau & Buske, 2008; CIHI, 2011b). As a<br />
consequence, the number of physicians per capita has begun to rise in recent<br />
years, a trend already apparent in Australia, France, Sweden, the United<br />
Kingdom and the United States well be<strong>for</strong>e the increase in <strong>Canada</strong> (Fig. 4.2).<br />
Fig. 4.2<br />
Number of physicians per 1 000 population in <strong>Canada</strong> and selected countries,<br />
1990–2010<br />
Physicians per 1 000<br />
1990<br />
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010<br />
Sweden<br />
France<br />
United States<br />
Australia<br />
United Kingdom<br />
<strong>Canada</strong><br />
Source: OECD (2011a).<br />
Note: In order to create a time series, it was necessary to use data <strong>for</strong> Australia, Sweden and the United States based on practising<br />
physicians, while data <strong>for</strong> <strong>Canada</strong>, France and the United Kingdom are based on physicians licensed to practice.<br />
When comparing <strong>Canada</strong> with its five OECD comparators in terms of the<br />
number of nurses per 1000 population, it appears that only Australia witnessed<br />
a comparable decline in the density of nurses in the 1990s. By 2005, the trend<br />
had reversed in <strong>Canada</strong>, and the ratio of nurses to population has increased<br />
since that time (Fig. 4.3).