Health committee  I agree. We have to be smarter about who does what and when. By the way, I also think that would contribute to better overall well-being if one sees cases that are more aligned with one's skill set as opposed to just anyone who was referred. In some ways, our health care system has not evolved much from the 1950s where a secretary calls a secretary and books an appointment to maybe being replaced by the fax machine, which isn't necessarily replaced by anything just yet, but I think these things are worth considering.

Health committee  You have two questions here, and one is how we would measure it. I think that's an excellent question because, if we don't have metrics, how do we know if what we're doing is meaningful? I would suggest that, over time, national metrics on burnout would be appropriate, which would also bring accountability to the federal government and the provincial ones.

Health committee  Every individual is different and everyone's experience is different, but we do see over the last decade the literature growing much more thoughtful and mature, which is a fancy way of saying other people are looking for answers and I think there are some. They include, first of all, a culture of wellness making it possible for physicians to get care and get timely care and making it acceptable for physicians to want that.

Health committee  Maybe I'll do all of the above, briefly. There has been a certain common theme running through the different testimonies about how the nature of pressure has changed with regard to health care. There's more information to know than ever before. That's a good thing. We're able to help patients in ways that we weren't able to help them five or 10 years ago.

Health committee  Thank you, members of the committee, for the invitation to speak today. “I started watching the clock during the day and thinking more about how many more patients there are and how much time is left in the day. I knew I'd get through it, but I didn't know how I'd feel at the end of the day.