How hard to practice med in ont if schooled in diff. prov.

[Guest Relf]

We all know that it is next to impossible to practice medicine if we have been schooled outside of Canada (e.g. Australia, USA, carribean)....but how hard is it to practice if we are schooled in a different province, such as Manitoba, Alberta, or NFLD?.....anyone have any links to share?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

-Aran

[Guest fox]

I'm not an expert on this, but it is definitely not impossible to practice medicine in Canada if you went to med school in the states or another country. There are many docs at the U of A hospital from the US. I think if you do your residency in the states you may have to do an extra year of residency here if you want to come back, but I am not sure of the details. As for practicing in other provinces, it isn't a problem, you just have to get certified by the Royal College in that province. I think that requires a lot of paperwork and maybe writing a test (?), but it is not difficult, from what I understand.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I recently ran into an Ontario Family Doc who did his MD at Dal in NS but his residency in Ont. He made the point to me that in fact it isn't always easy as pie to transfer residency programs to different programs. . . in particular, he claimed there was something about the structure of the Dal family medicine program (less two months of something?) that caused you to do some sort of extra certification to then practice in Ontario. I'm not sure if these claims are true, but I think it's definitely worth investigating if you're planning on switching provinces. How to investigate that, I haven't the foggiest. . . maybe contact the provincial licencing authorities directly. . .

 

As for training in other countries, it is possible but YOU HAVE TO DO YOUR RESEARCH. There's hundreds to thousands of internationally trained doctors working in Canada as cab drivers, pizza delivery boys or starting over based on how challenging the red tape of getting a Canadian medical licence can be.

[Guest Steve U of T]

I know that 3 of the 4 staff vascular surgeons at Toronto General attended med school at McGill. However, I think they all did their residency and vascular fellowship at U of T.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

Actually, I believe one of them trained, i.e., did his vascular surgery residency, at McGill too, at the Royal Victoria, under a pal of mine's dad. Therefore, it looks like transfers from one province to another are do-able.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Yeah, I too know lots of docs who transferred provinces. My point was not that it wasn't doable (it's very doable) but that based on what this one doc told me you shouldn't automatically assume you can start practicing in province B if you do your residency in province A. It's smart to investigate these things when you're applying to residency programs.

 

In fact, everthing I'd heard before suggested getting a licence in province B after training in province A was automatic. I'm just repeating what a doc I met this summer said because, if true, it suggests this isn't always the case and you should probably do your research before choosing an OOP residency program.

[Guest strider2004]

It's basically just paperwork. If you have a certification from the CCFP or the FRPC/S, then other provinces should have no reason not to grants you a license, assuming you haven't royally messed up. However, you have to pay the appropriate registration fees, etc.

 

In terms of transferring between residences, it's a tricky thing in terms of getting funding, but doable. If you move to another province when you begin residency (ie. med school in Alberta, then residency in Ont) then there's no hassle whatsoever.