Thank you.
I hope you don't feel that we're all putting you on the spot. You've actually been giving great answers. I think we recognize that, yes, there are turf wars and all of that, and territories, but you're also part of the solution.
I just wanted to pick up on my colleague Mr. Morin's question about nurse practitioners and physician assistants. I don't understand why we don't have more of them in Canada. It's better in Ontario than it is in B.C. In B.C., it's really hard.
I just want to relate a recent experience. I happened to be in the U.S. and I got a bronchial infection. I ended up going to see a doctor and I have to say I was really impressed. I'm not advocating their medical system, but in terms of the doctor's office, first of all I didn't see a doctor, I saw a nurse practitioner. They took all of my medical history and put it into the computer as I sat there with a medical assistant. So I saw two people.
As well, I never got the prescription. It was emailed directly to the pharmacy. So with the issue of abuse, I never held the prescription in my hand. It went straight to the pharmacy, so there was an electronic record. I thought, wow, this is so straightforward.
But it strikes me that in Canada, because most doctors operate in their own practice or with a number of doctors, it's up to them to decide if they want to hire a nurse practitioner, and most people don't. So how do we motivate them to avoid Mr. Young's problem, his great example of people loading up a doctor's office, when really they just need to be treated for the flu? A nurse practitioner would do the job.
It's so incredibly staring us in the face, but it doesn't happen. So how can we help motivate that to happen?