(Saint-Jean) With health systems currently struggling with a shortage of doctors, the outgoing president of the Canadian Medical Association suggests creating a single national system for issuing licenses to practice — and some provinces are agreement with this idea.
Posted at 5:12 p.m.
At present, each province issues its medical practice licenses within its territory. Dr. Katharine Smart believes in a recent interview that this system is very cumbersome and expensive, especially for doctors trained outside of Canada.
She believes a national licensing regime would verify the credentials of foreign-trained physicians through a single, lean mechanism for the entire country.
“It doesn’t really make sense for (all) the provinces to independently accredit each university or each country,” Ms.me Smart. It would be logical for it to be done once, for the whole country. »
Dr. Smart, who is a pediatrician in Whitehorse, Yukon, says foreign-trained doctors come to Canada hoping to practice their profession, but are often stymied by an expensive and complicated licensing process.
She believes that many of these doctors eventually leave for other countries where it is easier to practice. “Many are never able to enter the system and finally practice medicine. »
The issue of cumbersome systems for foreign-trained physicians has recently come to a head in several provinces. Last month, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones asked the province’s professional colleges to develop plans to accredit foreign-trained doctors and nurses more quickly.
“The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has already taken steps to facilitate interprovincial (accreditation) on as little as one day’s notice, to meet urgent needs,” the college spokesperson said Wednesday. order, Shae Greenfield, in an email. He added that the College had also proposed to the government to create a new temporary registration class, “specifically designed to support mobility between provinces and territories”.
Other provinces, such as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, are currently trying to streamline their procedures as they welcome Ukrainian doctors fleeing war in their country.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador is willing to “explore the concept of physician mobility across Canada, while maintaining our mandate to protect the public,” according to an emailed statement Thursday.
In Nova Scotia, Dr. Gus Grant, Registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, believes the idea of a national licensing system has merit, even if it would be a enormous administrative undertaking.
In the meantime, Mr. Grant noted that the four Atlantic provinces are discussing ways to coordinate their licensing mechanisms in the Atlantic region. “I think it’s easier and quicker to do,” he said. I’m very excited to see the momentum towards this collaboration right now. »