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CMAJ
CMAJ - September 19, 2000JAMC - le 19 septemre 2000

Attitudinal problems facing international medical graduates

CMAJ 2000;163(6):697-8 See:  eLetters  

See also: Open letter to Canadians at foreign medical schools [eletter]
T.B. MacLachlan's recent letter illustrates the attitudinal problems Canadian citizens who graduate from schools outside Canada face when they attempt to obtain licensure in Canada [Letter].1

The article on British Columbia's experience with the licensing program for international medical graduates (IMGs) showed that the program had a 100% licensure and in-country retention rate at a much lower cost than that of training a physician from scratch [Review].2 The program also eliminates the possibility of having newly minted, Canadian physicians ending up paying taxes to Uncle Sam after having had several hundred thousand taxpayer dollars spent training them in Canada [Letter].3

Instead of seeing such programs as cost-effective, short-term solutions to the oft-reported Canadian physician shortage, [Features]4 people quibble about the "significant cost" or about whether such programs really meet the needs of all IMGs in Canada.

When faced with the possibility that IMGs might have to be considered for practice in Canada, Canadian doctors — at least the ones who have written to CMA publications — react by enacting rules to exclude them [CMA News]5 or faulting them for having to study abroad [Letter].6 This is done despite reports about the need for more physicians [Features]7 and about how hard it is to get into medical school in Canada [News and analysis].8

Being a Canadian citizen and an IMG who has at least US$400 000 worth of postgraduate medical training in the United States, I find myself having to head back to the United States to join other Canadian citizens who are also IMGs, after being unsuccessful in my attempts to obtain licensure here. I knew I would have a hard time trying to get medical training here but I didn't know how hard it would still be after I received accredited training in the United States.

Canadians deserve the best medical care in the world, but are they getting it when doctors feel so overworked they take job action to get funding for additional manpower, as physicians have done in British Columbia?

David Roy M. Evangelista
Physician
Lethbridge, Alta.

eLetters

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References
    1.   MacLachlan TB. Licensing international medical graduates [Letter]. CMAJ 2000;163(3):260-1.
    2.   Andrew R, Bates J. Program for licensure for international medical graduates in British Columbia: 7 years' experience. CMAJ 2000;162(6):801-3.
    3.   Andrew R, Bates J. Licensing international medical graduates [Letter]. CMAJ 2000;163(3):261.
    4.   Sullivan P. Concerns about size of MD workforce, medicine's future dominate CMA annual meeting. CMAJ 1999;161(5):561-2.
    5.   Mador ML. History lesson. CMA News 2000;10(7):2.
    6.   Milburn C. Is medical school only for the rich? [Letter]. CMAJ 2000;163(1):13.
    7.   Sibbald B. Southern Ontario towns hang out MD-wanted signs. CMAJ 1998;159(10):1292.
    8.   Sullivan P. Shut out at home, Canadians flocking to Ireland's medical schools — and to an uncertain future. CMAJ 2000;162(6):868-71.

© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors