Is GP the same as Family?

[Guest dddd]

What does it mean if you "qualify for licensure in General Practice from the College of Physicians & Surgeons of British Columbia"? Is this the same as being a family doctor, ie is this what you get after completing a two year family residency?

[Guest Ian Wong]

Before around 1993, all graduating medical students in Canada did a one year "rotating" internship as their first year of residency. That rotating year included rotations in the core specialties of medicine, including Surgery, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Psychiatry. After that one year, you became a GP, and had the ability to open up an office as a general practitioner.

 

After 1993, the specialty of Family Medicine was more rigidly defined, and the requirement became that you had to complete a two year Family Medicine residency before you could practise as a family physician.

 

Therefore, while GP and family doctor are pretty much used interchangeably, particularly to the lay public, the term GP is actually an obsolete one. We aren't training GP's today, we are now training people in Family Medicine.

 

Ian

[Guest dddd]

When I was reading about the 5 year emergency residency on the UBC web-site, it said that after two years of your residency, you "qualify for licensure in General Practice from the College of Physicians & Surgeons of British Columbia". So what does that really mean then?

 

Thanks

[Guest Ian Wong]

Many specialties in Canada still require a "rotating internship" of sorts. These include Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Pathology, Radiology, Anesthesiology, and many others, I'm sure. What that means is that residents in those specialties are actually fulfilling most of the same criteria that Family Medicine residents are also taking in their residency. For that reason, once those "rotating internship" residents finish their second year of residency, they are eligible to sit for the Family Medicine specialty exam, and if they pass, can then work as family physicians and moonlight while continuing onwards in their native residency.

 

I assume that the first two years of the five year Emerg residency also therefore fulfill the criteria set out by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

 

Ian

[Guest dddd]

Thanks Ian.