Foreign doctors take Canadian training spots, leaving behind overwhelmed system

Canadian medical students who train abroad are finding themselves locked out of practicing medicine in their home country, with many taking their skills elsewhere.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Canadian medical students who train abroad are finding themselves locked out of practicing medicine in their home country, with many taking their skills elsewhere, while foreign students fill training spots in Canada.

During a House of Commons health committee, medical licensers, a Canadian medical student advocacy group and a Canadian who was shut out of his field after studying abroad called on the federal government to reform the immigration and health licensing program.

Advocates noted Canada’s healthcare system has been chronically overwhelmed and understaffed, ranking nearly last among other universal healthcare systems internationally. Yet, federal immigration policy prioritizes international students over thousands of Canadians ready to work.

“There are 3,500 of us (Canadian medical students) studying abroad. 800 graduate every year. Last year…181, and we’ve had as low as 119 of those 800 apply to come back to Canada,” Rosemary Pawliuk, president of Canadians Studying Medicine Abroad, testified. “Not because they don’t want to, but because the barriers are so significant and we’re so unwelcome.”

Last week, internationally trained doctors who have already immigrated to Canada and hope to work in their fields noted similar licensing and bureaucratic barriers which prevent them from working to alleviate the overwhelmed system.

According to a SecondStreet.org study, at least 15,474 Canadians died while waiting for care between April 2023 and March 2024. The group estimated the real number may exceed 28,000.

Scott Alexander, a Vancouver man who studied medicine in Australia in 2017, said only two of his cohort of 60 Canadian students at the University of Queensland School of Medicine returned to Canada to practise.

Alexander said he was led to believe he would be able to work in Canada after his education. However, after being turned away from residency jobs — which are a requisite for licensure — and changing rules to resident-level examinations, he has been unable to work as a doctor in his own country.