It is common knowledge that the health care system in this country is a bit of a mess. One huge problem is a shortage of doctors. Our medical schools can’t produce enough new docs to replace the ones that are retiring especially given lifestyle changes. Lots of new doctors have decided that as well as practicing medicine they would like to have a life – vacations, time with family, hobbies. You get the picture.
One source of new docs is foreign trained docs who decide to immigrate here for a better life. Trouble is that as with masny other foreign trained professionals their qualifications are not recognized and they have to spend large amounts of money and sometimes years requalifying to practice their profession in Canada. In the meantime they drive taxis, clean buildings or work in factories. What a waste!
The day before yesterday I caught a news story from Halifax on my beloved CBC. A European trained doc who has come to Canada was being profiled. Before coming here he was a certified rheumatologist and taught family medicine in a medical school. Because of the time and cost of qualifying to be a doctor here this person has decided to go to nursing school. How stupid are we as a society. Here we have a highly trained individual who wants to practice his profession here in a field where we could certainly use his skills and we won’t help him come up to our standards! This seems incredibly stupid to me. Some provincial Ministry of Health should grab this person and offer, in return for a promise to practice in a mutually agreed location to support him or her during the retraining period. Given the need for more docs I believe that this would be money well spent.
I know from my involvement with the local hospital board of directors that we have a critical shortage of both family docs and specialists. We have a local doctor recruitment program that has a huge annual budget and a less than stellar track record. Why can’t they invest some of their budget in a doctor like this.
This seems so simple to me but then I’m a fairly simple person!