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<\/p>\nOntario\u2019s government is introducing new requirements that will see fewer residency spots for s it faces a doctors’ shortage. <\/p>\n
International medical graduates, from places like the U.K., Australia or the Caribbean, will now be required to have completed at least two years of high school education in Ontario if they hope to apply for the province\u2019s first round of residency matching.<\/p>\n
Those looking to do their residency in Canada are required to apply through CaRMS \u2014 the national agency tasked with pairing doctors to residency programs \u2014 to be matched with a residency spot.<\/p>\n
But doctors across the province say the government’s decision is having \u201cunintended\u201d consequences. <\/p>\n
Toronto anesthesiologist Filipe Santos, who was internationally trained himself, said it\u2019s important to have a physician workforce that reflects the general population.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need Canadian-trained doctors and I’ll never say no to that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I do also think that we need immigrants. We need those internationally trained physicians with very diverse backgrounds to care for our population.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residency applications range wildly, depending on the specialization, province and educational background. Generally, international medical graduates will complete one or more tests as they prepare for the first round of matching.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | In rural Ontario, residents endured bone-chilling temperatures to get a doctor:<\/p>\n
Hundreds wait in the snow to get a family doctor in rural Ontario <\/p>\n
More than 1,000 people lined up in the snow in Walkerton, Ont., on Wednesday to try to get a family doctor \u2014 but only the first 500 would be successful. <\/p>\n
That round has already started, which is frustrating for some applying for the residency spots, Ontario Medical Association president Zainab Abdurrahman told CBC Radio\u2019s Metro Morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving the rules change right when you’re trying to submit your documents, starting to get things in place, is really throwing them off,\u201d she said. The first round will close on Nov. 27, CaRMS told CBC in an email statement.<\/p>\n
Before the new requirements, there were more than 1,200 available spots for international medical graduates at Ontario residency programs. Now, that is expected to drop to just 170, the OMA’s section of general and family practice said in a news release Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u2018This is very discriminatory\u2019 <\/p>\n
Santos said that\u2019s simply not enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like we have to overperform to be able to be in the same places and spaces as other physicians that are Canadian trained,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you’re trying to get a license, you just feel like you’re never good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the email statement, CaRMS said Ontario is the only province with such eligibility criteria, but not the only one with dedicated application streams. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, for example, have their own streams, through which internationally trained physicians can apply if they can prove they have a connection to the provinces.<\/p>\n
Ontario\u2019s second round of matching includes the positions left over after the first round of matching. That round won’t require international medical graduates to have two years of high school in Ontario. But those applying for the second round will be in competition with Canadian trained doctors who didn’t place in the first round. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very discriminatory,\u201d Santos said. \u201cWe basically are creating two types of citizens in our society: the citizens by birth and the Canadian citizens by immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Health said the change in requirements aims to support residents educated within the province who also have international medical degrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur government is not only ensuring local post-graduate training opportunities, we are also continuing to build our health care workforce to connect people in every corner of the province to convenient care,\u201d Ema Popovic said in an email.<\/p>\n
Around 2.5 million Ontarians without a doctor: research network<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman said she understands the province is trying to bring Ontarians back to the workforce. But she highlighted doctors who sign up to do their training in the province also have to sign a legally binding contract that means they\u2019re required to practice in Ontario for at least five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you’ve settled down, you’re practicing, maybe built a family, you often stay in that same area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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Prior to the new requirements, the number of available spots for international medical graduates at Ontario residency programs was 1,200. Now, it\u2019s just 170. (Mark Quinn\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman said the Ontario Medical Association has been in talks with the province about the changes because they could mean fewer applicants.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, this type of approach is also having a lot of unintended consequences,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we might be going against what we’ve worked so hard to improve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
CaRMS said it wouldn\u2019t know the impact of the change until the end of the first round of matching. <\/p>\n
However, the province is already in desperate need of doctors. Approximately 2.5 million Ontarians were without a family doctor last June, according to INSPIRE-PHC, a health research network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cReducing who is in that pool to apply for those spots could actually leave us with a lot of unmatched spots in our system, which we don’t want,\u201d Abdurrahman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The OMA’s section of general and family practice chair, David Barber, said in an email statement that he thought he had read the new requirements wrong when he first saw them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in desperate need for more family doctors in Ontario. If a new doctor has completed medical school, I cannot imagine why we would prevent them from starting residency based on where they went to high school,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be opening doors, not closing them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario\u2019s government is introducing new requirements that will see fewer residency spots for s it faces a doctors’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-216096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}