In Ontario and Quebec we've started to see investments in nurse practitioners as a way to help alleviate some of the shortages. In Ontario they have the one-to-four ratio, where every four doctors can have the use of one nurse practitioner if they can find them. In my riding a nurse practitioner can take 800 patients off the wait list, but the challenge is that many of the doctors don't want a nurse practitioner or haven't been able to get one because they're still in the elementary stages of educating and training enough nurse practitioners in Ontario.
Do you find that to be a similar challenge? Is there an adequate number of nurse practitioners in aboriginal communities?