Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Dec;71(12):1612-1626.
doi: 10.1007/s12630-024-02869-0. Epub 2024 Nov 25.

The anesthesia human resources crisis in Canada

Sarah A Leir  1 , Tyler J Law  2 , M Dylan Bould  3   4
Affiliations

The anesthesia human resources crisis in Canada

Sarah A Leir et al. Can J Anaesth. 2024 Dec.

Abstract
in English, French

Human resources are essential to the safe and effective functioning of any health care system. Pressure on the health care workforce is of active global concern. There appears to be an anesthesia service delivery crisis in Canada. Recent media headlines have featured vacant physician anesthesiologist positions, closure of maternity units, and postponement of elective surgeries because of a shortage of anesthesiologists. This shortage is most serious in rural and remote communities. This has prompted the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society to publish a position statement on "Strategies to Address the Surgical Backlog and Health Human Resource Issues in Anesthesia."In this article, we discuss the composition and organization of the anesthesia workforce in Canada. We compare the Canadian anesthesia workforce to other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. We contend that the current anesthesia provision model in Canada is not meeting population needs and outline potential solutions to the anesthesia human resources crisis. These include increasing the numbers of anesthesiologists in training, encouraging international medical graduates to migrate to Canada, and various different approaches to task shifting and task sharing.

RéSUMé: Les ressources humaines sont essentielles au fonctionnement sécuritaire et efficace de tout système de soins de santé. La pression exercée sur le personnel de santé est une préoccupation mondiale d’actualité. Il semble y avoir une crise dans la prestation des services d’anesthésie au Canada. Les gros titres récents des médias ont présenté des postes vacants de médecins anesthésiologistes, la fermeture de maternités et le report de chirurgies non urgentes en raison d’une pénurie d’anesthésiologistes. Cette pénurie est plus grave dans les collectivités rurales et éloignées. Cela a incité la Société canadienne des anesthésiologistes à publier un énoncé de position sur les « Stratégies pour réduire l’arriéré chirurgical et les problèmes de ressources humaines en santé en anesthésie ».Dans cet article, nous discutons de la composition et de l’organisation de la main-d’œuvre en anesthésie au Canada. Nous comparons la main-d’œuvre canadienne en anesthésie à celle d’autres pays de l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques. Nous soutenons que le modèle actuel de prestation de services d’anesthésie au Canada ne répond pas aux besoins de la population et décrivons des solutions potentielles à la crise des ressources humaines en anesthésie. Il s’agit notamment d’augmenter le nombre d’anesthésiologistes en formation, d’encourager les personnes diplômées en médecine à l’international à émigrer au Canada et à favoriser diverses approches différentes en matière de transfert et de partage des tâches.

Keywords: anesthesia human resources; anesthesia provision shortage; global health; nonphysician; task sharing/shifting.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. World Health Organization. Health workforce; 2024. Available from URL: https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-workforce#tab=tab_1 (accessed May 2024).
    1. Ipsos. Ipsos global health service monitor 2022: a global advisor survey; 2022. Available from URL: https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2022-09/Ipso... (accessed May 2024).
    1. Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society Press Release. Shortage of anesthesiologists impacts delivery of surgical, acute and chronic pain services; 2019. Available from URL: https://www.cas.ca/CASAssets/Documents/About-Us/88_20-19-May-PressReleas... (accessed May 2024).
    1. Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society. Strategies to address the surgical backlog and health human resource issues in anesthesia; 2023. Available from URL: https://www.cas.ca/CASAssets/Documents/Practice-Resources/Reports-Positi... (accessed May 2024).
    1. Cooke A. What an anesthesiologist shortage means for pregnant women in Yarmouth; 2019. Available from URL: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/anesthesiologist-shortage-pre... (accessed May 2024).

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources