"The United Kingdom's surplus of doctors could solve the physician shortage in Canada, the British Medical Association has suggested."

Balance of article here: http://cfcn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...hortage_070112

I wonder if restrictions the provincial jurisdictions will/do place on foreign professionals will stop this in its tracks, even though the "Canadian doctors say the specialists would be welcomed with open arms".

Not unless they change the licensing / internship requirements to make it as easy for UK doctors to practice here as it is for US ones.

Is this surplus the foreign doctors who have been affected by this?

Hang on: I thought Britain had such a shortage of doctors that we were having to import them from abroad?

Doctors yes, consultants no. MY buddy is fast approaching becoming "Mr" again in the UK, but jobs for consultants are extremely thin on the ground.

He likes Canada, and looked into what would be required to come work here, and he came across two basic stumbling blocks...

A: Canada needs GPs, not surgical registrars in niche specialties

B: After about 15 years now of exams and assessments either he know his stuff or he doesnt. He doesnt need to come to canada, retake basic exams that he has a one on fifty chance of being lucky enough to find a space in the program to take them, do another 2 years internship before being allowed to practice his specialty under the supervision of an existing canadian consultant. Thanks but no thanks.

If he likes Canada and has specialist medical skills why doesn't he go to the US? It's very much like Canada and doctors there are well paid.

Same requalification issues, and of the two places he much prefers a less aggressive canadian lifestlye to the "dog eat dog" "survival of the fittest" way of life south of the border, and for some reason, the idea of state funded heathcare to all (or most anyway) appeals too.

UK GPs are well-paid now imho, and with their new contracts they have niceties like being able to completely opt out of on-call if they want. Why would someone swap big money and conditions like that, for the faff of getting his quals recognised here, with a massive pay cut? I'm sure I've read the average GP earns 60-80k CAD (maybe it was just Manitoba, is that right for countrywide? seems a joke!), this article says 119k GBP avg for GPs in the UK.

That can't be right. Consider this. If a qualified GP joins the Canadian armed forces for a 4-year contract, he/she will get a signing bonus of $225,000 and a starting salary of about $135,000. I have it on good authority that most military doctors are crap, so those amounts of money are not market rate.

See, to me that all rings very hollow. I live (today anyway) in Toronto, I push people out of the way to get on to the streetcar, I ignore forty people a day who demand money. I get paid by the hour and, if I get sick, I have nothing.

My partner's father otoh, is a hospital doctor in a small town, working in arguably the world's largest system of socialized medicine. He's recently been offered three times his salary to move to the big city but hasn't done so because he values the quality of life where he is and, anyway, two people can live comfortably on a hundred grand in a small town. Since his colleagues have all chosen to work for less money in government medicine than they could get in the private sector they share a perspective and have much in common. He is, of course, in the US.

It's not as simple as all Canadians being kindly but slow witted and all Americans being talented but greedy.

<Shrugs> He's visited canada and the US on several occasions (7 weeks of paid vacation to use up) and he prefers canada. I guess he sees something you dont?

Is he French? The use of French is, I think, the only real difference between the US and Canada.

It's not, I meant to give the Canadian salary in GBP for sake of comparison

I would expect more from a mod.

As a punishment, get thee outside again. This time we want wet hair and wet T-shirt. And pics.

and NO PANTS