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Ottawa urged to help expedite licences for foreign-trained doctors


aaronjw

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By KIM MACKRAEL

Globe and Mail Update

Funding temporary work programs would speed up the recognition of foreign qualifications, says Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons

 

The federal government should fund temporary work programs that help foreign-trained doctors get their licences faster, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada says.

 

Andrew Padmos, the college's chief executive officer, said between 6,000 and 10,000 doctors can't practise in Canada because there aren't enough spots in residency programs.

 

"If they require residency, there are severe constraints," Dr. Padmos told the Commons standing committee on human resources. He said that's because there are only slightly more residency spots in Canada than there are medical school graduates each year. "It's insufficient to deal with several thousand foreign-trained grads," he said.

 

The committee is looking for ways to speed up the recognition of foreign qualifications in a bid to improve work opportunities for immigrants and make Canada more economically competitive.

 

Dr. Padmos said qualifying doctors can sometimes get around the residency backlog by working under the temporary supervision of a Canadian-trained physician - but that option has its own price tag.

 

"The federal government should fund the salary of the international graduate, plus something for the supervisor to make it possible," he said after the meeting.

 

He also recommended the creation of an arms-length observatory to study health and human resources and advise the provinces on where doctors and specialists are most needed.

 

Governments have long promised to help internationally trained professionals find work at their skill level. In 2009, the federal government announced workers in eight fields would not have to wait longer than a year to find out how the credentials they obtained abroad compare with Canadian standards. At the time, the government promised to add foreign-trained doctors to the list of professionals by the end of 2012.

 

Robert Young holds the Canada Research Chair in multilevel governance and his research includes immigration and settlement policies. He said that while the federal government's efforts to reduce wait times on qualifications are laudable, they often aren't the biggest barrier for professional immigrants - whether they are doctors or work in another field.

 

"In many cases, it's not the credentials that matter but getting the Canadian experience," Mr. Young said in a telephone interview.

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They are pretty funny! LOL @ all the self-proclaimed health care system "experts" out there in G&M commentary land:

 

"In the 1980s the Ontario provincial Conservative government, under Harris, reduced medical university and we continue to suffer from this cost cutting measure." :D

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Yah right, these foreign doctor immigrants shouldn't hold their breath for government action to help them any time soon. The Throne Speech imperative re immigration is ridding Canada of fraudulent arrivals b/c of marriages of convenience, getting foreign doctors their credentials is nowhere on the radar of the government.

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They are pretty funny! LOL @ all the self-proclaimed health care system "experts" out there in G&M commentary land:

 

"In the 1980s the Ontario provincial Conservative government, under Harris, reduced medical university and we continue to suffer from this cost cutting measure." :D

 

Only missed it by a decade hahaha

 

Too funny

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Yah right, these foreign doctor immigrants shouldn't hold their breath for government action to help them any time soon. The Throne Speech imperative re immigration is ridding Canada of fraudulent arrivals b/c of marriages of convenience, getting foreign doctors their credentials is nowhere on the radar of the government.

 

What makes you say that marriage of convenience is a fraud?

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the applicant to acceptance ratio for imgs (whove passed all their exams, and more) is around 50-100 to one, depending on specialty... the reason is we have no doctors, we're not talking about medical school, we're talking about residency... i'd also add that we sell all the saudi's spots we could sell to img's which often compromise 25 percent of residency spots in some programs... this is way more complicated than everyone knows so everyone always ovversimplifies the issue because they're not presented with all the facts

 

Whats the applicatant to acceptance ratio in Canada? About 12%? When you have that many well qualified people in Canada who can do the job i see no reason to look outside the country for more help.
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They are pretty funny! LOL @ all the self-proclaimed health care system "experts" out there in G&M commentary land:

 

"In the 1980s the Ontario provincial Conservative government, under Harris, reduced medical university and we continue to suffer from this cost cutting measure." :D

 

I was reading similar gems about AB healthcare the other day. One letter was about the "amazing" care the individual had received in Mexico when they stayed at some hotel there vs. being on a waitlist here in AB, followed by a conclusion that our healthcare system is drastically inferior to Mexican. I had but one question: "And how much exactly did you have to pay your Mexican doc to come out to your hotel?"

 

Another one concluded with "cats and dogs get better medical care." Ok then, next time you have a kidney stone or a broken hip, just pop into the Dr's office and we'll put you down.

 

 

Good lulz.

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What makes you say that marriage of convenience is a fraud?

 

I'm referring specifically to Canada's intent to deter fraudulent or non bona fide spouses from obtaining permanent residence in Canada. There has been a crack down, Canada is deporting spouses who arrived here with fraudulent intent and is taking steps to eliminate or reduce the acceptance of such persons as immigrants. I was referring only to those marriages of convenience that have been entered into for the purpose of giving immigration officials the impression that this is a real marriage between a Canadian and foreigner. Unfortunately, an industry has been built up of phony marriages, foreginer come here under false pretenses and Canada has targeted this problem as a high priority.

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Some data suggest that Canada should be more selective in licensing MDs trained out-of-country. Earlier this year, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan reported that the vast majority (93-98%) of the claims of doctor-patient sexual boundary violations that they investigated were by international medical graduates. That's a high over-representation of the 46% of Saskatchewan physicians that are IMGs. Disregarding any xenophobic bias (e.g. that the College takes claims against IMGs more seriously than domestic medical graduates), that suggests that IMGs are more likely than DMGs to violate sexual boundaries. This may mean that it's up to Ottawa to weed out the antisocial, extremely narcissistic, and culturally-oblivious applicants.

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