Thank you for your question.
In principle, I think we agree with you that this is the wave of the future--that we certainly do need more doctors and more nurses--but I would make two points. First, in relation to needs, it has to be the needs of the population and the needs of the patient and not simply numbers, so we have to have a good analysis locally, regionally, provincially, and nationally as to what the needs of the health care system are, and then have the providers match those needs. That's a big challenge, a big issue, but it's part of the national framework we're discussing.
The second thing you touch on is the notion of collaborative practice. It is our feeling, certainly in my area of cardiovascular medicine, that although we have shortages, and shortages will remain for the foreseeable future, there is going to have to be some element of collaborative practice among all the health care professionals in those fields, a collaborative practice that matches the needs of the patients and the population. We have established a number of principles for that, including deciding who does what, when, and under what conditions. It is really a work in progress, but it very much fits in with what you're talking about.