Canada is in the midst of a serious shortage of physicians,1 yet another sign that the provinces were shortsighted to reduce medical school admissions in 1993/94. Enrolment should have been left alone, with newly graduated physicians encouraged to dedicate at least a few years at the beginning of their career to work in underserviced areas. The encouragement could come in the form of tax credits, extra income or some other type of "carrot."
To increase the number of physicians, we should open residency positions for foreign-trained physicians already in our midst. At the moment, they are in a catch-22 situation: they cannot take Canadian exams because they cannot get a residency position, and they cannot get a residency position because almost all of these positions go to Canadian graduates.
Patrick Sullivan's article1 mentioned that Canada's medical schools currently receive 4 applications from qualified students for each available space. Many of the students who are rejected still want to fulfil their dreams and are accepted into medical schools abroad. My own daughter, who is currently in the fourth year of a 6-year program in Ireland, is a case in point. We should be rescuing students such as her by increasing enrolment in the clinical years, making it possible for these students to transfer to Canadian schools and graduate here.
With tuition costs in the range of $30 000 per year, my daughter will have a debt of more than $150 000 by the time she graduates, practically mandating that she apply for a residency position in the US.
It is shameful that a Canadian citizen has to exile herself to another country at a time when we are in dire need of new doctors. When are the CMA and its provincial divisions going to put their collective pants on and demand that our governments address these gross aberrations?
Reference
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