Canada Needs More Immigrant Doctors To Support The National Healthcare System
Despite a population increase of over five million people in the previous 10 years, Canada has acquired just 167 medical residencies in the same period of time, making it increasingly difficult for many Canadians to gain regular access to their family doctor.
CBC News reported in late January that “more than 6.5 million Canadians do not have regular access to a family doctor.”
Population expansion in our country, along with several factors pushing against the availability of family doctors countrywide, has had significant effects for Canadians.
This is a problem that governments at the federal and provincial/territorial levels are striving to address through increasing immigration of competent healthcare workers.
Barriers for existing international medical graduates.
According to Government of Canada figures from December 2022, immigrants make up “one out of every four healthcare sector workers” in Canada.
In reality, when broken down by profession, immigrants constitute the following percentage of all healthcare professionals in Canada:
· 23% of registered nurses
· 35% of nurse aides and [those in] related occupations
· 37% of pharmacists
· 36% of physicians
· 39% of dentists
· 54% of dental technologists and [those in] related occupations
Despite this, CBC News reports that foreign nationals trained as doctors in other countries, known as International Medical Graduates (IMGs), sometimes struggle to secure a medical residency in Canada owing to “quotas on how many [IMGs] can get a spot.”
Furthermore, IMGs have challenges in pursuing medical practice in Canada since the residency system is “run by medical schools that favour their own graduates.”
According to Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of the CMA, this poses a challenge to Canada’s healthcare system since “the country isn’t producing nearly enough homegrown primary care doctors to keep up with the country’s health needs.”
As a result, while Canada requires foreign-trained doctors to supplement its Canadian-born workforce in the healthcare business, IMGs in Canada confront specific challenges that may preclude them from practicing.
Canada addresses the challenges encountered by IMGs by investing in international credential recognition.
on addition to attracting more competent healthcare professionals to Canada (more on that later), Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has pledged to solve the problem by investing on foreign credential recognition.
According to a January press release from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), the Canadian government intends to grant up to $86 million in financing to 15 organizations throughout Canada.
The ESDC says that the funding will be used to “increase capacity for [the] foreign credential recognition of approximately 6600 internationally educated health professionals, [supporting] highly educated and skilled immigrants [to ensure they] receive proper recognition for their international credentials.”
Other reasons why Canada is having a shortage of family doctors
Canada is enjoying record-high population growth, including the fastest-paced population increase in a single quarter since 1957 in the third quarter of 2023. However, the availability of family doctors is failing to keep up for a variety of reasons.
Decreasing interest in family medicine among medical graduates
According to a January CBC News report, Canadian medical graduates’ interest in family medicine is falling.
First, a Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) data quoted by CBC News shows that the percentage of graduates who “picked family medicine as their discipline for residency training” has decreased by more than 7% over the previous nine years. In 2014, 37.8% of graduates chose family medicine, compared to 30.3% in 2023.
Furthermore, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) believes that around 1,000 more family doctors are “leaving the profession” each year than “new ones coming into the workforce.”
Finally, Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, director of the Canada Health Workforce Network, told CBC News that “more and more family doctors are obtaining credentials to work in emergency and sports medicine, anesthesiology, for example, which takes them out of the clinic environment.”
Taken together, these realities show a lack of interest in the field among Canadians pursuing healthcare jobs, posing a substantial barrier to accessing family medicine.
Minimal expansion in medical residencies.
According to CBC News, “Canada’s medical schools are admitting only 167 more doctors for mandatory postgraduate training than they did 10 years ago.” This is significant, according to federal data quoted by CBC News, because current population estimates indicate that Canada will require almost 49,000 extra family doctors by 2031.
Fortunately, several provincial governments are striving to address the issue by increasing medical school capacity in the future years. Healthcare is mostly the responsibility of the provinces and territories, who “are largely responsible for physician training and licensing.”
Additional initiatives are being done to address this gap.
Beginning at the federal level, in addition to investing in international credential recognition, Canada hopes to attract more foreign-trained doctors to the country through category-based Express Entry draws.
Category-based drawings, launched in May 2023 by IRCC, are a form of Express Entry draw designed to attract more foreign nationals with experience in critical job areas across Canada. IRCC is prioritizing five professional areas through these draws, including healthcare.
Finally, at the provincial level, medical schools in three provinces are taking steps to either expand medical training spaces or open new medical schools entirely. CBC News has released a report outlining all of these agreements.
Ontario: The province has pledged to adding 449 extra “postgraduate medical training spaces over the next five years.” Of these, 154 positions “are expected to come online later” in 2024 at various medical schools around the province.
Prince Edward Island (PEI): The University of PEI plans to build a new medical school in the fall of 2025.
British Columbia (BC): Simon Fraser University has announced plans to build a new medical school on its Surrey campus in 2026.
