There were 8,162 Canadian-educated doctors providing direct patient care in the U.S. in 2006, the study said.
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The president of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada said political authorities have to figure out what's behind the exodus to the U.S., and do their best to stem the tide.
"We need to further understand the reasons for this ongoing loss and find ways to encourage these physicians to practise in Canada," Nick Busing said in a guest editorial in the journal.
Rosser and his co-authors suggested provincial governments ought to consider offering incentives to attract Canadian-educated doctors back to the country.
Rosser, former head of the division of family medicine at the University of Toronto, Rosser become tired in the 1990s of watching his students head south of the border. In 1997, he recalled, all eight family medicine graduates in one program went to the United States to practise.
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http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/04/10/health-doctors.html
Canadian doctors would come home if asked: CMA survey
Respondents cited better remuneration, practice opportunities, proximity to family and workplace flexibility as reasons to return
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 9, 2007 | 4:13 PM ET
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 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.
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http://www.cbc.ca/story/health/national/2007/10/09/canadiandoctors-return.html
So why did they leave?
The CMA survey attracted more than 500 verbatim responses. Here's a sample:
- "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."
- "Seven years working in Nova Scotia, often one in two call, no weekend help - I got fed up with working alone."
- "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."
- "After my four years at McGill I would have loved to stay in Canada, but I would have been unable to work in a major metropolitan area and I wanted to practise neuroradiology. It has its flaws, but I admire the Canadian medical system."
- "A key impediment to returning is non-reciprocity for board certification. There is no way I would consider retaking basic internal medical boards now that I have been practising as a subspecialist in the US for many years."
- "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 OR time."
- "I am very pleased the CMA is doing this."
- "You need to act before doctors leave, not afterwards."
- "I would love to practise in Canada - in fact, it is my preference - but there are no jobs in cardiac surgery."
- "I think it is amazing that more of us didn't leave."
- "I love being Canadian and would love to live in Canada, but the remuneration and system constraints make it less attractive than my current US practice."
- "It's about time Canada looked at why we left."
- "I did med school in Canada, residency in the US. There were no positions available in Canada when my training was completed. Now there are, but there is a major impediment: board certification is not transferable from the US to Canada."
- "The US and Canadian systems are both flawed - just different flaws."
- "I did not leave my job in Canada - I felt my job left me. I had access to the OR 1 day every 3 weeks, and my patients were on an eternal waiting list."
http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm?ci_id=10040878&la_id=1
[I think if the changes made in pilot project done by the Alberta Bone & Joint Health Institute in 2005 were applied nationwide it would go a long way to attracting & retaining Canadian surgeons. That's one thing that could be done anyway. Another thing could be something like BizPal. BizPaL is a business permit and licensing program (Business P-a-L, get it?) that makes it easy for an entrepreneur to set up their own business. It's like those income tax programs where the user just fills in blanks on the screen instead of filling out a bunch of paperwork, not knowing whether it's all done correctly. I wonder if it would be possible for the health system. Make up something like BizPal but for doctors who want to set up a practice here. Less time fussing over provincial, federal & medical association forms, more time with patients (or whatever). -- NSay] [Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 10, 2007]
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