Abstract
The provision of timely and quality surgical services is a persistent challenge in rural Canada. Factors undermining the provision of surgical care in rural Canada include: an overall shortage of general surgeons; residency training programs that have relatively few role models for promoting the virtues of a rural practice; persistent difficulties in recruiting and retaining surgeons in rural communities; and limited resources for establishing and maintaining a coordinated surgical service. However, with these challenges come opportunities to develop creative solutions and the Canadian Health Care system in many ways is well positioned to enact these. Such solutions include better education and role modeling to promote rural surgery as a career choice; incorporation of telemedicine to expand and improve care in rural communities; making systematic organizational changes to improve the delivery of surgical care in rural areas; training GP surgeons to provide a set scope of basic surgical care; and utilizing physician extenders to expand the delivery of surgical services. Educational and health policy initiatives can help to explore these solutions further.
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Caron, N.R., Pinney, S.J. (2011). Surgery in Rural Canada: Challenges and Possible Solutions. In: Wichmann, M., Borgstrom, D., Caron, N., Maddern, G. (eds) Rural Surgery. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78680-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78680-1_3
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