A longitudinal study reported recently in the ACMC (Association of Canadian Medical Colleges) Forum shows that while an overwhelming majority of newly qualified physicians stay in Canada for the first 2 years after leaving postgraduate training, the passage of time slowly erodes the number who remain.
The study examined the movement, both interprovincial and international, of the 1989 postgraduate training exit cohort. The exit group consisted of 1714 graduates of Canadian medical schools who completed their residency training in Canada. Analyses were conducted at 2, 5 and 10 years following graduation.
Two years after graduation, 1605 physicians (93.6%) remained in Canada, while 100 (5.9%) had relocated to the US or elsewhere and 9 physicians could not be located. At 5 years after graduation, 25 physicians had returned to Canada from the US but 50 more had headed south, or elsewhere, and 12 could not be found; 1577 (92%) remained in Canada. By 10 years after graduation, 1523 physicians in the cohort (88.9%) remained in Canada; although 18 had returned from the US, an additional 57 had relocated to the US or elsewhere, and 27 could not be located.
All provinces experienced both in-migration and out-migration over the 10 years of the study; BC had both the highest retention rate for its own postgraduate trainees (79%) and the highest recruitment rate (84%). The recruitment rate means that for every 100 physicians receiving postgraduate training in BC, 84 additional doctors who had received postgraduate training elsewhere in Canada moved to the province. Although Quebec's retention rate was relatively high (77%), it had the lowest recruitment rate (9%). Newfoundland had low retention (21%) and recruitment (17%) rates, as did Saskatchewan (23% for both).