A new survey says more than 10 per cent of doctors who moved to the United States after graduating from a Canadian medical school would seriously consider returning home to Canada to practise.

The Canadian Medical Association conducted the survey in April. It shows 13 per cent of respondents would be "likely" or "very likely" to return home while more than half of the almost 1,540 respondents would be willing to hear about practice opportunities in Canada.

The April survey found that more than half of the almost 1,540 respondents would be willing to hear about practice opportunities in Canada.
(CBC)

The association representing most of Canada's doctors mailed the survey to more than 5,000 Canadian-trained physicians under age 55 who now live and work south of the border.

Almost 60 per cent of those who responded left Canada during the 1990s, when funding cuts had a major impact on health-care services and physician morale.

The CMA estimates that Canada lost 4,014 more physicians to the U.S. than it gained between 1991 and 2004.

Respondents cited four main reasons for leaving Canada: income, availability of medical facilities and services, availability of positions and clinical autonomy.

When asked what incentives might entice them to return to Canada, respondents cited better remuneration and practice opportunities, proximity to family and workplace flexibility.

Survey shows doctors see Canada as "resource poor"

Specialists greatly outnumbered family physicians in the survey. More than half of respondents (54 per cent) practised in Canada before leaving for the United States, and 56 per cent of those had been in practice for less than five years.

"While over half of the survey respondents expressed an interest in being contacted about possible career opportunities in Canada, realistically these opportunities will have to be enticing with respect to income, location, academic appointments and specialty," the report concluded.

A sample of responses included such comments as: "I am at a crossroads in my life-career and investigating the reality of returning to Canada is appealing. I would like to come home." Another said: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone."

However, there were physicians who did not favour packing up and returning to their native land, the survey found.

"As a general surgeon, I would prefer to live in Canada but I got tired of working in a resource-poor system with constant cutbacks and little O.R. time," said one.

And from another respondent: "I love being Canadian and would love to live in Canada, but the remuneration and system constraints make it less attractive than my current U.S. practice."