If I want to be a GP/Family Physician, how hard is it to get a residency in Canada?

[LoquaciousLoquat]

43 minutes ago, Synth1 said:

I'm not reading anything in your response that justifies telling everyone you can to avoid family medicine at all costs.

Are there problems in our health care system? Absolutely, and it's not just a headache for family doctors. The grass is brown and dried up everywhere. Are family physicians under compensated? Sure, but you can still gross 300-400k pretty easily as a family doctor working full time. I don't care to get in to the nitty gritty of specific fee codes or isolated events such as that Newfoundland thing. And Ophthalmology is about as straw man as you can get. It's no secret they are overpaid relative to other specialists.

Things will continue to evolve, and are definitely not as rosy as they were for prior generations of physicians, but to say that primary care family medicine is over (as you have repeatedly) is alarmist and not based on anything but conjecture. I think many of us would appreciate it if you could fix your broken record. 

Then we can agree to disagree. And, frankly speaking, I find the point on how "all physicians are doing poorly" to be more of a broken record, as if primary care (and similar public-facing specialities like emergency medicine) are not disproportionately more affected by worsening medical and bureaucratic complexity compared to other fields. 

I'm not saying to avoid family medicine, only to avoid the primary care aspect of it. Maybe there's a quote I made somewhere where I don't bother to distinguish the difference. But my entire idea in this thread is how a generalist practice (i.e. primary care) can no longer survive in this day and age of hyper-specialization and the inevitable splintering of general medicine by midlevels. (Not to mention general lack of political activism by primary care physicians, and governmental / policy-maker / public apathy towards our plight, amongst so many other things...).

Your quoted figure of 300-400K is probably more applicable to FHO physicians. FFS pays much lower. Also, keep in mind the 25-30% overhead to all family physician earnings, not to mention the after hour / access requirements of FHO family doctors to justify that figure.

 

[Synth1]

31 minutes ago, brackenferns said:

But my entire idea in this thread is how a generalist practice (i.e. primary care) can no longer survive in this day and age of hyper-specialization and the inevitable splintering of general medicine by midlevels. (Not to mention general lack of political activism by primary care physicians, and governmental / policy-maker / public apathy towards our plight, amongst so many other things...).

That's your entire idea in every thread, and it's conjecture. You don't have a crystal ball, or insider information, you're just hyper-focused on the negative. And like I said, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy when you are actively discouraging everyone from doing it. We get it, please move on. 

[GH0ST]

2 hours ago, Synth1 said:

That's your entire idea in every thread, and it's conjecture. You don't have a crystal ball, or insider information, you're just hyper-focused on the negative. And like I said, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy when you are actively discouraging everyone from doing it. We get it, please move on. 

@brackenfernsthere's a difference between complaining and outright doing everything in your power to scour every thread to spill your guts out on why people shouldn't choose FM. Anyways I don't want to derail the thread any further since he was clear he's not changing his mind. Just another attention seeker... sad really. 

- G 

[shikimate]

Somebody said the grass is brown in medicine and they have a good point, FM is not alone in dealing with systemic issues. It's an open secret that 0.5-1% raises have never ever caught pace with inflation. It's also an open secret about fellowships, MSc/PhD degrees etc.

Medicine is competitive and hard to get into and grueling and makes above average wage, and this has led to a lot of MD into the sunken cost fallacy trap. That's why you hear "I invested 13 years of post secondary ed to become doctor while a plumber charges 300$ an hour", "why should a nurse with Bachelor degree get more raise than I do", "pharmacist can charge the same $ as MD for tele consult" etc etc.

I can't say I know the solution to the sunken cost fallacy. But what I do know is you should work hard and rest hard. Take a big trip if you are burnt out, when you come back you'll be 200% refreshed and productive compared to before. Draw some lines in the sand about things you will not do or accept, and let another lower bidder take that.

[1D7]

On 12/12/2022 at 4:44 PM, Prokinetic said:

Hello

I am a practicing pharmacist who is looking to go abroad to study medicine.

The schools I am looking at are in AUS or IRE as what many people do as a secondary option away from CAN and US.

I've been hearing from many places about how difficult it is to come back to Canada to practice as residency spots are limited for IMG.

However, I have not yet heard anything about the family practice resdiency.

I am not looking for any other popular specialization but just family physician and I do not mind living in a rural areas like Manitoba.

How hard is it to get a residency in Canada if I want to pursue family practice and is willing to move to a rural area if I were to graduate from Ireland and AUS?

Is it still something of a big risk? Would my chance be higher if I were to finish my residency in IRE/AUS then comeback? Would I need to complete residency in Canada again?

 

Thank you in advance

Re: AUS/IRE training. My understanding is that it is difficult to obtain an Australian residency position after graduating from an Australian medical school (as you are an IMG). I have old classmates that are still stuck overseas or have to practice in the U.S/Europe. However if you do obtain residency training there, it appears that licensing is recognized as long as you fulfill the requirements requirements https://www.cfpc.ca/en/education-professional-development/examinations-and-certification/alternative-pathways-to-certification-in-family-me/recognized-training-in-certification-outside-canad.

Re: Entering a Canadian residency program from an overseas medical school. This would be ideal but it is a very competitive process. In 2022 there were 1354 IMG applicants to 170 IMG family med residency positions (see report https://www.carms.ca/data-reports/r1-data-reports/). Nearly all positions were filled. Given the number of applicants, I presume the positions not filled were largely because they required French.

                                         

Overall I do not recommend pursuing medicine overseas since you already have a career. Going to medical school overseas means you'll accumulate probably at least 500k of tuition+living+travelling debt, as well as a significant opportunity cost in loss of income. You have to be dead-set on leaving pharmacy and have no better option. You are probably better off trying to enter medical school here or becoming a NP/PA.