Livio Di Matteo, a well-known economics professor in Thunder Bay, said Ontario's health-care system is in a crisis marked by waiting lists, ER shutdowns and shortages of critical health professionals including doctors and nurses.
His essay argues that Ontario's health crisis is an issue of design and not one of having enough resources. "Yet, two decades later here we are facing a lot of similar issues — overcrowded ERs, lack of after-hours access to family physicians, waiting lists." For the numbers of nurses, Switzerland was first with 18.4 practising nurses per 1,000 population. The OECD average was nine nurses per 1,000 people. The Ontario numbers were split, showing 11 nurses per 1,000 people if you included all RNs, nurse practitioners and licenced practical nurses. If you define practising nurses as those giving direct care to patients, the Ontario number is 7.1 per 1,000 population.
Di Matteo said this takes a bite out of the argument that Ontario and Canada need to be spending more money. He said some countries commit a lot of their GDP to health and rank high. Some countries spend little and rank poorly, while other countries spend a lot and still do not rank well in the quantity of resources .