The National Post reports on how some Canadian doctors have held lotteries to determine which patients to eliminate from their practices, while other doctors held lotteries to decide who they'll accept. By shedding some patients doctors hope to avoid imposing a 5-minute appointment assembly line on the rest of their patients. Similarly, restricting new patients through a lottery keeps patient loads manageable.
Both lotteries reflect the severe shortage of primary doctors in Canada -- yet another example of medical personnel shortages (and surpluses) that tend to crop up under nationalized single-payer health care systems. (Last year it was a nurse shortage and hospital consultant glut in the U.K.)
After being kicked out of her doctor's practice, one patient was forced to drive 18 kilometers to the next town to find a doctor.
