Thank you.
With respect to paramedics and their role, and expanding that, I think there's very much an opportunity with respect to rural and remote areas. You've probably heard from different professions that the rural and remote communities are oftentimes the least served by our health care system. I'll use Alberta as an example. Right now, many of the rural hospitals don't have physicians overnight or in specific periods of time. Paramedics provide those services, and paramedics oftentimes provide the emergency care service in the overnight period. That's one place where I think there is opportunity.
I think it's a good use of resources from a value perspective as well. I'm not saying that paramedics are underutilized or that they have great capacity. I just think it makes sense, in terms of their skills and ability, to be able to provide that service. It's a good use, and it works for the community. I heard Kate or Paulette mention before that if you can train individuals from a community, they are more likely to stay in that community. I think there is great opportunity with respect to that.
I'll go to the third question and then come back, because that leads into the whole concept of health workforce planning, which is an important piece, and I think this could be a good opportunity for the federal government. Paramedics are not listed in that plan of where we're going. If you look at pharmacists—and I've reviewed the pharmacy—there is information about their number, age, education, and career prospects. There is a whole understanding of who they are, so you can plan in the future.
When I said there are approximately 40,000 paramedics, I absolutely don't know the exact number. We could go to all provincial regulators, and we still wouldn't know the number. I think there is a real disconnect, and there is a missed opportunity in terms of planning. I think that's a very important linkage, so thank you for that question.
The last part is with respect to scope of practice. Hopefully this is not too abstract, but the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons has adopted the CanMEDS model of looking at how they define the profession. We've adopted that model as well, because it takes your knowledge, skills, and abilities or competencies and takes it up one step to look at what your role is. I've always been fascinated by their presentation on it. They went to the community and said, “What do you want physicians to be?” Physicians themselves thought they wanted to be clinicians, and that's how they viewed the world. When they asked the community, the community wanted physicians to be collaborators, educators, leaders, all these other things.
That's how they started to develop their new competency profile. That's what we are choosing to do with respect to the paramedics. We are engaged in that exact process, to look at all the roles that we can undertake. How does the community view the way we should be engaged? What are those roles? That will then lead to what the knowledge, skills, and abilities or competencies are that support that.
Again, I think there is a role for the federal government to support that kind of thinking about how we look at health care. Hopefully I've answered your question.