Horror stories of US trained MDs trying to come back to Canada?

[tanthalas]

I saw, on my local news, an american trained MD trying to come back home to British Columbia but is consistently getting shut down. I feel bad for him.

 

Anyone hear of any horror stories?

[Vallinar]

thats pretty retarded if its an ongoing issue seeing as how we have doc shortages and all.

[D-Rock]

Right up until that American-trained MD takes one of the residency spots you wanted. Or until s/he acquires the position in one of our metropolitan cities that is not in dire need of doctors.

 

I'm not saying we shouldn't take in more doctors, but there should be restrictions imposed.

[Sergie]

Right up until that American-trained MD takes one of the residency spots you wanted. Or until s/he acquires the position in one of our metropolitan cities that is not in dire need of doctors.

 

I'm not saying we shouldn't take in more doctors, but there should be restrictions imposed.

 

Bravo Rock!

We should hire them and send them right to the hell-freezing holes where -50*C in the winter and +40*C in the summer They must be punished for not being as lucky as several other Canadian graduates. And does not matter how good or bad or trained they are, they betrayed the flawed system and wanted normal training in reasonable time. What's the worst, they came back!

 

 

see this:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=469613

Canada is defenetly capable to defeat the aliens 2007 was the worst year for all abroad-trained doctors.

[zmedo007]

Wow.

 

Thank god I left this profession.... sorry to say.

[D-Rock]

Of the 2449 PGY-1 postions available in 2007's match (i.e. at the start of the 1st iteration), IMGs obtained 229 of these positions in the first match. In the second iteration, IMGs obtained a further 69 positions, for a total of 298. This comprises 12% of all available PGY-1 spots. Yes, only 6% of IMG applicants matched in the second round in 2007, but there was a 20% increase in IMG applicants in 2007 over 2006; there has been roughly a tripling of IMG applicants in Canada since 2001, meaning the match rate must decrease because residency positions cannot increase at the same rate. Up until this year, there was a general increase in the total number of IMGs matching each year, however. 2006 was a bit anomolous because 111 matched (previous years were in the 60 - 80 range).

 

Of these 298 spots, 127 IMGs went into family medicine (93 first round, 34 second round), which means 57% of IMGs who match get into specialty positions. Only Medical Genetics, Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology, and Urology had no IMGs match to them despite applications.

 

Of the 296 positions remaining after the first iteration, 294 were included in the 2nd iteration. Only Toronto had all of it's positions filled in the first round, and only 55 available positions were in Newfoundland, NOSM, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. Which I should point out all have nice features about them and frequently get slighted, and I think that is unfortunate. Quite a sizeable portion of Canada is freezing in the winter (although -50 is a slight exaggeration) and hot in the summer (although +40 is a bit of an exaggeration), so anyone who wants to practice in Canada should be aware of that. Apparently even Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and occasionally even Vancouver get snow in the winter and sun in the summer! Indeed, 87 of the available spots were in the French schools, but I don't think there is anything wrong with learning French if someone wants to practice in Canada--it's not like it's an official language or anything. Actually, this might put foreign grads who don't speak either English or French that are considering coming to Canada at an advantage since they could learn French as easily as English.

 

Again, I'm not trying to say that IMGs should be shut out, but this is an extremely complex issue that can't be addressed by feeling bad for IMGs or protective of Canadian grads.

 

Another issue that should be considered is that 36 Canadian-trained medical graduates went to the US through NRMP in 2007. Since none graduated from Calgary or McMaster, we can calculate the taxpayer cost of training this crop to be $170K/yr x 4 yr x 36 = $24,480,000. I'm still a little suspect of this $170K/yr cost of training a medical student given that entirely private US medical schools charge $50K/yr tuition and fees (or less), but I have to take it. Still, it might free up some money for more residency positions if we stopped subsidizing Canadians to go the US for the dream of filthy lucre by recouping their training costs.

[hippie]

Right up until that American-trained MD takes one of the residency spots you wanted. Or until s/he acquires the position in one of our metropolitan cities that is not in dire need of doctors.

 

I'm not saying we shouldn't take in more doctors, but there should be restrictions imposed.

 

Yeah I'm sure that the hundreds and hundreds of Quatari, Bahraini, egyptian and lybians doctors filling much needed residency spots in our hospitals deserve to come and train in Canada more than a Canadian who lived all his life here, paid his or her taxes but was unfortunate enough to get into a Canadian medical school.

 

In the meantime, enjoy the the new CMA campaign.

[AMmd]

Yeah I'm sure that the hundreds and hundreds of Quatari, Bahraini, egyptian and lybians doctors filling much needed residency spots in our hospitals deserve to come and train in Canada more than a Canadian who lived all his life here, paid his or her taxes but was unfortunate enough to get into a Canadian medical school.

 

In the meantime, enjoy the the new CMA campaign.

 

haha you're a racist

[The Law]

People, people. Can we not be civil? There is no need for the sarcastic remarks. You should be able to see both sides of the coin, and even if you disagree respect the other side.

 

D-Rock raises some good points, yes, there is a lack of funding for residency spaces and we should be showing some loyalty to those who had done their training here. At the same token, we severely need doctors, and should be pressuring our government to increase the number of residency spots so that IMGs can also have a shot at them. We NEED more doctors, and temporarily, until we are self-sustaining and can increase the number of doctors we are producing, we are going to have to rely on IMGs. Also, we should be giving IMGs a fair chance of participating in the match here - as long as their home institution is accredited. I find it ridiculous that many professional who immigrate here are unable to work in their field of training, given that most of the time, these people are very capable of doing their job! If we are going to accept people into our country as immigrants, then we need to be giving them the opportunity to prosper as well.

[Sergie]

Yes, and we should be able to apply to these universities as well and not face problems when we come back if they are accredited.

 

Good point!

I love it. Canadians should be able to apply broadly, to any good accredited school in the world (might a list by Can gvnmt be needed) and, after passing the board exams, should have access to the same jobs and opportunities as long as the scores and skills are competitive. MCC should not take into account the country where it was done but only knowlege and skills. This is probably the best way to have a big number of trained MD entering Canadian health force during a very short period of time.

In this case we won't probably have to rely on foreigners so heavily, we won't have a need to increase the number of spots in medical schools and hire more teachers and pay for it with our taxes; but the systen must accept the credantials of qualified professionals with CAnadian sitizenship who need some additional training inside the system = residencies.

Fast and effective.

NOte: to take MCC exams costs additional several thousand dollars and could be used for their additional training to some extend.

I find it interesting. You?