Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - May 2008
At fist glance it seems that the new immigration policies being proposed by the Conservative government would have foreign-trained doctors jumping for joy.
Under the new system, professionals whose skills are desperately lacking in Canada, including doctors and other health professionals, would be able to see their applications “bumped” to the front of the processing line, thus dramatically reducing their waiting time.
However, at least two of Canada’s largest organizations of foreign-trained medical graduates have pointed out a major weakness to the new policy in the latest National Review of Medicine.
The main point raised by the groups is that fast-tracking doctors through the immigration system does little in-and-of itself to alleviate the shortage in the field. This is because many foreign-trained physicians’ credentials are not even recognized in Canada, and already the nation is rife with doctors-turned-cabbies and -cleaners. Bringing more of these physicians into Canada at a quicker pace will have little effect if they are not allowed to practice.
That is why foreign-trained doctors, such as Dr. Joshua Thambiraj, president of the Association of International Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, are joining the chorus of immigrant advocates who have long been calling for a re-examination of Canada’s foreign-credential recognition system.
“If we bring in more doctors, we will need to look at licensing,” Dr. Thambiraj said. “We feel if there were a clear path to practice, that would solve quite a bit of the problems in regard to the shortage.”
Source: National Review of Medicine
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