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Why doctors are delivering pizza
Ottawa Citizen – Thu, 15 Sep, 2011
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Nobody wants to see foreigntrained doctors delivering pizzas while Canadians wait in line for medical care. Or so we are told.
But, despite all the political promises to do something about the issue, most foreign-trained doctors who come to Canada - where doctor shortages are chronic - will never work in their field. Some might end up assisting other doctors or doing some work in health care, if they are lucky, but many will be forced to deliver pizzas, clean houses or drive cabs to get by.
If politicians really want to do something about this they could allow more foreign trained doctors into residency programs, which is the biggest logjam in the system of doctors earning Canadian credentials. Instead, most political solutions stick to tinkering around the edges with programs such as language training and small loans that seem helpful, but are more designed to get votes than to make a significant dent in the number of international medical graduates who will never practise medicine in Canada.
The pointless controversy that has dominated the early days of the Ontario election campaign is typical of the Canadian political approach to dealing with foreigntrained professionals - it's mainly about politics and rarely results in a real solution. A Liberal plan to set up a $12 million tax credit program to help a small number of foreigntrained professionals who are Canadian citizens get one year of work experience morphed into a furious debate between the Tories who call it affirmative action aimed at "foreign workers" and the Liberals who say PC Leader Tim Hudak should apologize for his xenophobic, and inaccurate, comments.
The issue is disappointing because it has devolved into the ugliest kind of wedge politics (which each side accuses the other of starting) and because it has dominated the campaign, meaning bigger issues - health, education and energy, to name a few - have got almost no traction. In fact the program in question, aimed at foreigntrained professionals who need Canadian work experience, will help relatively few people.
But it does say something about the issue. For Hudak, it is a matter of us and them. Helping foreign-trained professionals means the government is not helping Canadian-trained professionals with the same program, yes. But not helping foreign-trained professionals work in their fields - and most of them came here on the premise that they would - is also costly to Canadians.
Especially where doctors are concerned.
It makes little sense for Canada to encourage skilled professionals to immigrate here and then force them to overcome unrealistic hurdles in order to work. Many of those who give up trying to work as doctors do so with an understandable sense of betrayal. But it is not their loss alone.
Canadians continue to struggle to find family physicians and specialists, especially in parts of rural and remote Canada. Earlier this year, the federal government announced it would spend $40 million to set up residency programs to help train rural doctors in order to ease the shortage. None of the 60 new residency positions expected to come to Ontario are for internationally trained physicians.
And it is costly to have a large and growing group of Canadians underemployed by design. The Conference Board of Canada estimated in a 2001 report that the Canadian economy loses between $4 billion and $6 billion a year by not recognizing foreign credentials.
Helping internationally trained physicians find work in Canada is not simple. There are more barriers than fingers on your hand - from interprovincial barriers (something politicians, again, say they want to fix) to language and culture barriers.
But the biggest block remains the fact that there are many times more internationally trained doctors in Canada than there are residency programs to get them working (most foreign trained doctors, even experienced ones, would have to do some residency in order to work here). In Ontario, there are between 200 and 220 residency positions for internationally trained doctors (including growing numbers of Canadian-born students who leave the country to study medicine) and that has not changed in about eight years.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario notes that the issue is complex and that the key is helping internationally trained physicians get access to the system without compromising standards. But a College spokesman says it would like to see more foreign-trained doctors who are eligible have access to medical schools in Ontario.
Helping more qualified doctors work in their fields is not rocket science. If politicians are really concerned about the number of foreign-trained doctors delivering pizza, they should increase residency programs so these underemployed medical professionals can do what they were trained to do.
Elizabeth Payne is a member of the Citizen's editorial board. E-mail: epayne@ottawacitizen.com
Ottawa Citizen – Thu, 15 Sep, 2011
•
•tweet0
Nobody wants to see foreigntrained doctors delivering pizzas while Canadians wait in line for medical care. Or so we are told.
But, despite all the political promises to do something about the issue, most foreign-trained doctors who come to Canada - where doctor shortages are chronic - will never work in their field. Some might end up assisting other doctors or doing some work in health care, if they are lucky, but many will be forced to deliver pizzas, clean houses or drive cabs to get by.
If politicians really want to do something about this they could allow more foreign trained doctors into residency programs, which is the biggest logjam in the system of doctors earning Canadian credentials. Instead, most political solutions stick to tinkering around the edges with programs such as language training and small loans that seem helpful, but are more designed to get votes than to make a significant dent in the number of international medical graduates who will never practise medicine in Canada.
The pointless controversy that has dominated the early days of the Ontario election campaign is typical of the Canadian political approach to dealing with foreigntrained professionals - it's mainly about politics and rarely results in a real solution. A Liberal plan to set up a $12 million tax credit program to help a small number of foreigntrained professionals who are Canadian citizens get one year of work experience morphed into a furious debate between the Tories who call it affirmative action aimed at "foreign workers" and the Liberals who say PC Leader Tim Hudak should apologize for his xenophobic, and inaccurate, comments.
The issue is disappointing because it has devolved into the ugliest kind of wedge politics (which each side accuses the other of starting) and because it has dominated the campaign, meaning bigger issues - health, education and energy, to name a few - have got almost no traction. In fact the program in question, aimed at foreigntrained professionals who need Canadian work experience, will help relatively few people.
But it does say something about the issue. For Hudak, it is a matter of us and them. Helping foreign-trained professionals means the government is not helping Canadian-trained professionals with the same program, yes. But not helping foreign-trained professionals work in their fields - and most of them came here on the premise that they would - is also costly to Canadians.
Especially where doctors are concerned.
It makes little sense for Canada to encourage skilled professionals to immigrate here and then force them to overcome unrealistic hurdles in order to work. Many of those who give up trying to work as doctors do so with an understandable sense of betrayal. But it is not their loss alone.
Canadians continue to struggle to find family physicians and specialists, especially in parts of rural and remote Canada. Earlier this year, the federal government announced it would spend $40 million to set up residency programs to help train rural doctors in order to ease the shortage. None of the 60 new residency positions expected to come to Ontario are for internationally trained physicians.
And it is costly to have a large and growing group of Canadians underemployed by design. The Conference Board of Canada estimated in a 2001 report that the Canadian economy loses between $4 billion and $6 billion a year by not recognizing foreign credentials.
Helping internationally trained physicians find work in Canada is not simple. There are more barriers than fingers on your hand - from interprovincial barriers (something politicians, again, say they want to fix) to language and culture barriers.
But the biggest block remains the fact that there are many times more internationally trained doctors in Canada than there are residency programs to get them working (most foreign trained doctors, even experienced ones, would have to do some residency in order to work here). In Ontario, there are between 200 and 220 residency positions for internationally trained doctors (including growing numbers of Canadian-born students who leave the country to study medicine) and that has not changed in about eight years.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario notes that the issue is complex and that the key is helping internationally trained physicians get access to the system without compromising standards. But a College spokesman says it would like to see more foreign-trained doctors who are eligible have access to medical schools in Ontario.
Helping more qualified doctors work in their fields is not rocket science. If politicians are really concerned about the number of foreign-trained doctors delivering pizza, they should increase residency programs so these underemployed medical professionals can do what they were trained to do.
Elizabeth Payne is a member of the Citizen's editorial board. E-mail: epayne@ottawacitizen.com
