Canada is short of doctors — and it’s turning away hundreds of home-grown physicians each year – CBC

Fewer than 30 per cent of Canadian doctors trained abroad are matched to residency positions

Feb 10, 2023

The country’s health-care system is suffering from an acute shortage of doctors — even as hundreds of qualified Canadian physicians trained abroad are turned away each year because of a tangle of red-tape and bias, experts say.

Canada is passing up a chance to add hundreds of these Canadian doctors to a strained system because, critics say, tight-fisted provincial governments have restricted the number of residency spots — and because the system explicitly privileges students who went to Canadian medical schools.

According to census data, there’s no shortage of doctors in Canada. What we have is a shortage of licensed doctors.

While estimates vary, there may be as many as 13,000 medical doctors in Canada who are not practising because they haven’t completed a two-year residency position — a requirement for licensing.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-turning-away-home-grown-doctors-1.6743486

NationTalk Partners & Sponsors Learn More