Registration requirements

Why does each province and territory have different registration requirements? The expectation that a physician has to go through a registration process with each province or territory in which he or she may wish to work is undoubtedly contributing to the shortage of physicians in remote areas.

I recently looked into doing short-term locum work in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. I would love to visit these areas of Canada, and it seemed like a good idea to go and work in them for 4–8 weeks as a family physician. My visit would also fill a very real need: some communities in the territories have difficulty finding locum physicians to supply holiday relief. However, after discovering that I would be required to supply notarized copies of my degrees and to pay significant amounts of money for a short-term licence, I am deterred. In addition, if I were to choose to go back a year later I would have to repeat the entire process. I may as well stay within my own province to do any locum work.

I think it is time that the colleges in each province and territory got together and decided on a plan to allow physicians to work anywhere in Canada with the same registration and licensing. If rural medicine is to survive, changes will have to be made to the current system.