Where have all the doctors gone?
February 12, 2008 | 03:20 PM
Darlene Hull
My family moved to Calgary from France in 1997. One of our first concerns upon arrival with two small children was to find a great family doctor. It took us five years to find one taking patients in this city.
So let me tell you a story.
My friend Ema arrived in Calgary from Albania shortly after we got here. She came to Canada with 12 years of education behind her as a fully qualified anesthesiologist, and with a sleep apnea specialization completed in France (a country with one of the most advanced medical systems in the world). Upon arriving in Calgary she began the journey of accreditation, fully aware that she might need upgrades and more experience with the provincial health system before being allowed to practice.
After about a year of being given accreditation requirements that were impossible to meet because they were based on a system of irresolvable “vicious circles”, she gave up and decided to start with becoming an RN and working up from there. She was given credit as a high school graduate, and her 12 years of training and subsequent experience from overseas allowed her exemption from three courses: anatomy, pharmacology and physiopathology.
Ema did her four-year nursing qualification in three years, and is now working on a master’s in nursing in order to be recognized as a nursing practitioner, the closest she’ll be able to get to being a practicing doctor in this province.
She tells me there are 400 fully qualified foreign doctors in Alberta eager to use their medical skills, but waiting for a residency that will probably never arrive.
Not sure where the hitch is, but it seems to me that 400 qualified doctors could go a long way to solving at least some of the doctor shortage here – if, of course, there’s a willingness to do so.
Comments: (1)
I can relate - it took me several years to find a family doctor, and I was without one for nearly five years. I think it's ridiculous that we're in such a medical crunch for doctors, yet no one is working to get these foreign doctors into the mix. How bad does it have to get before we'll see some serious movement on this issue?
Posted February 15, 2008 08:39 AM