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Health-care system needs more nurse practitioners

Part of the problem regarding our family doctor shortage is more medical students are going into specialties, rather than general practice.

To the Editor,

Re: Doctor shortage could kill us, Letters, March 31.

Part of the problem regarding our general practitioner (family doctor) shortage is because more and more medical students are going into specialties, rather than general practice. In addition to this we have an aging population that need a greater amount of time with their care provider, which is not adequately funded by the system. To help alleviate the problem, the government should be funding nurse practitioners. They can diagnose, prescribe, order most tests, including X-rays, and only need to refer if something is beyond their scope of practice. I have used one for years and they are wonderful and they have the time needed to spend with older patients.

Susan BarrNanaimo