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Reduction in medical enrolment positions


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Just reviewed the Admissions 2018 guide issued by the AFMC: https://afmc.ca/sites/default/files/documents/en/Publications/AdmissionRequirements_en.pdf

A few key points: 

  • # of first year spots in non-Quebec medical schools have remained largely unchanged year-over-year. 
  • as per Gaetan Barrette's movement to reduce medical school enrolment, the following changes have been noted comparing the AFMC 2017 guide against 2018 guide: 
  • Laval went from 228 spots to 218 spots (a 10-spot reduction). 
  • Sherbrooke went from 207 spots to 199 spots (a 8-spot reduction). 
  • Montreal went from 300 spots to 291 spots (a 9-spot reduction). 
  • McGill went from 184 spots to 175 spots (a 9-spot reduction). 

So.. in total, Quebec schools have reduced an aggregate of 36 spots for those entering Fall 2018. 

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Absolutely. I guess, it will release some steam that has been building around the residency matching process (given the 60-ish unmatched this year and how Robert Chu's departure shed more light on the process). I presume this will have positive effects for matching in the longer term, but it is not fair for Quebec schools to be the only schools cutting enrolment if this is a Canada-wide issue. Just my $0.02.

Edit: If this depressed enrolment #s remain for 3 years for Quebec schools, then 36 x 3 = a total of 108 spots would be eliminated.

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9 hours ago, qnzjlo said:

Absolutely. I guess, it will release some steam that has been building around the residency matching process (given the 60-ish unmatched this year and how Robert Chu's departure shed more light on the process). I presume this will have positive effects for matching in the longer term, but it is not fair for Quebec schools to be the only schools cutting enrolment if this is a Canada-wide issue. Just my $0.02.

Edit: If this depressed enrolment #s remain for 3 years for Quebec schools, then 36 x 3 = a total of 108 spots would be eliminated.

The reality though is that Quebec schools do stand much more on their own for residency positions and matching, with the exception of McGill (a multi-language environment).  A handful of people from purely anglophone institutions have matched to francophone schools, and about 10-20 graduates of francophone schools do match to anglophone institutions per year.  So this will really only effect Quebec graduates.  Long-term if the trends continue it might provide an incentive for non-francophone graduates to apply to francophone residency programs, but I would guess this would be a very minor incentive (matching to the US despite the MLEs would still probably be easier for many).  Even smaller schools like Dal and Mun have about 40% graduates match outside the province, so it's more of a Quebec phenomenon.          

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39 minutes ago, calcan said:

The reality though is that Quebec schools do stand much more on their own for residency positions and matching, with the exception of McGill (a multi-language environment).  A handful of people from purely anglophone institutions have matched to francophone schools, and about 10-20 graduates of francophone schools do match to anglophone institutions per year.  So this will really only effect Quebec graduates.  Long-term if the trends continue it might provide an incentive for non-francophone graduates to apply to francophone residency programs, but I would guess this would be a very minor incentive (matching to the US despite the MLEs would still probably be easier for many).  Even smaller schools like Dal and Mun have about 40% graduates match outside the province, so it's more of a Quebec phenomenon.          

Calcan, great point. I seem to have forgotten this trend. There seems to be a net movement away from Quebec residency programs post-MD, given by the fact that there were 64 residency positions remained unfilled; 56 were in family medicine, all of which were in Quebec. I suppose language is a barrier.

Edit: Quite some discussion over record unmatched CMGs, yet 64 odd residency spots remain unfilled in Quebec: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/189/21/E758.full. I guess the real solution here is to re-incentivize Quebec MDs to stay in Quebec for residency by making the overall "package" more attractive. I know that recent healthcare reforms have dissuaded grads from choosing Quebec as a place for residency.

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The surprising fact is there isn't much net movement.  Excluding McGill, the francophone schools have net out of province outflow of about 15 out of 735 graduates or roughly 2%.  Sure, incentives might help keep those 15 within the province, but I doubt from a cost/benefit analysis it would be worth it, especially since the Quebec government is now reducing medical seats, indicating there's a surplus of graduates from their point of view.  And yes, language would be a key barrier why non-francophones wouldn't apply to not only the FM but other residency positions as well.  There's a great deal of asymmetry, as has been pointed out before: francophone doctors are much more bilingual in general than anglophone docs.  

 

 

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This was what the article said.

They said that 17 less seats would be available come September, which is roughly reflected in the AFMC chart in the OP for 2016/2017. And that similar reductions will happen for the next two years. It makes sense that there would be ~34 seat reductions. The year after that will make it ~51.

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There was an obvious foreshadowing of this in the past few years. Unfortunately, this is going to contribute significantly to the relentless competition in the med faculties. Although this could be considered as a ''bad news'' for the prospective applicants, it basically seals the working condition of future physicians for the best (even though I don't think it was ever going to decrease whatsoever).

Nonetheless, I'm very eager to know how this is going to affect the GPA requirements for the next years to come. As I thought the exigencies were trending towards an asymptotic behaviour, I now realize this is going to get crazier here ahaha! We'll see how that goes!

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