Ismelda Ramirez says she never expected to swap her white doctor’s coat for a McDonald’s uniform. Despite training as a family doctor in the Dominican Republic, she ended up working at the fast-food chain for eight months after she moved to Quebec in 2022.
She’s one of thousands of internationally trained physicians, or ITPs, living in Canada, the vast majority of whom are not working as doctors, according to advocacy groups.
Despite changes to the process aimed at increasing the number of internationally trained doctors working in Canada, ITPs still face significant hurdles including navigating a complex system, a lack of opportunities and requirements that force some to temporarily leave the country.
I remember listening to CBC many many years ago talking about this same thing…sad to think that this hasn’t been resolved :(
It will never be resolved. Most provincial healthcare programs are heading towards insolvency and the aging boomer demographic will push many of them over the edge.
Maybe they would have been fine if they’d signed onto the agreement to only spend the extra billions Trudeau gave them on healthcare, instead of whinging like a bunch of Karens.
Not all degrees are created equal. Many 3rd countries have subpar med schools. I wouldn’t want a subpar doctor treating me.
So there’s a balance, how much do you lower the requirements?
You don’t have to lower requirements. Many foreign trained doctors would meet requirements for Canadian doctors.
There are ways to ensure competency and license foreign doctors through clinical assessments and standardized testing.
There is simply no will for this from a beaureaucratic perspective. I personally know of a few foreign physicians that have jumped through the hoops only to join a practice and be treated as second class citizens. Canada is great but not work / take call every holiday great.
Provincial governments have no issue maintaining a doctor shortage because they don’t have the money to pay for more physician services.
You don’t have to lower the requirements - you just have to make it easier and more affordable to pass local competency exams and get a license.
I work under several foreign trained engineers, the quality of their work is absolutely unacceptable and has cost ridiculous sums of money. Anyone who intends to work in Canada in a job which requires a degree or years of training should be examined with just as much scrutiny as Canadian students.
Anecdote != evidence but god damnt, if you can’t find 1000 stories exactly like mine.
I heard lots of stories from my friends who were students in engineering, and there were a lot of f’d up stories about Canadian trained PEs too. The pattern I noticed wasn’t where they were trained, but how much they were paid (you get what you pay for).
Also just an anecdote!
None of is as dumb as all of us.
I am definitely in a budget constrained environment.
FTA:
we’re looking for competence, not equivalence. That actually doesn’t change the bar, we’re still looking for a competent physician, but it broadens the number of people who [can] apply.
