Hi Colchar,

Husband will be working as a Family Physician (GP in Wales) and when the kids are more settled, I will have to sort out working as a staff nurse, which in itself will be a long process. But kids are young, 7 and 2, and the eldest will need me around to help him adjust so no big plans to work imminently.

We did visit Bracebridge in January, so a little idea of what's it like but of course a visit is nowhere near like living somewhere.

Have to confess Yandros post left me worrying a lot about the work visa!!!!! What if he doesn't get one? I was under the impression they only declined work visa if they thought you might not leave when time was up and be a burden to province. So many things to stress about!!!

My family doctor is Scots and all the doctors at his practice were Scots or Irish except for one. My aunt, who was a nurse, always marveled at how they never had any problems bringing doctors over from Britain!

But that is neither here nor there I guess so I'll get back to the issue. There is a shortage of doctors in Ontario so him getting a work visa should be a formality I would think - especially if he is willing to work in a smaller town like Bracebridge that will be under serviced as far as doctors are concerned. And as a physician he would be able to move anywhere in the province, or country, once permanent resident status was achieved (assuming you plan to stay permanently). He will never be out of work unless he chooses to be! And so far as I know, there are plenty of nursing positions available as well so, when the time comes, you shouldn't have any trouble finding work.

Ha I don't know about it being easy for doctors to work there!!! A lot of hoops to jump through, I suppose it's reassuring that immigrant doctors are so closely scrutinised and sure it will be worth it. The plan is for Canada to become our permanent home and LMO came back for three years so here for a while at least.

Vic.

Once qualifications are accepted, it is very easy for doctors to find work here. A newly arrived doctor will be monitored for about five years after arriving, but it is the same with a newly qualified Canadian doctor.

A newly arrived doctor, and a newly qualified doctor, are not exactly the same thing.

January is the best time to move because then you don't have to pro-rate your tax return and it makes easier to calculate other things, like the number of days you've been in country which matters for various other reasons. Also as pointed out you get to experience winter without sitting through the whole thing so it's a better introduction.

Husband has to sit two exams to be able to work unsupervised. Had to find a practice with a family physician able to supervise him (albeit loosely) and a proxy supervisor. Sort of what I mean about it being hard to practice out there since he's an extremely good doctor, lots of years hospital experience and general practice experience with orthopaedics and sports science behind him too. Still needs supervision though ...

I know a number of foreign trained doctors that have all had a hell of a time "requalifying" in Canada. The exams appear to be fine, as to the practical assessments. It is finding a residents place that seems to be the issue.

Almost Canadian,

My husband won't need a residency, the system is very complicated, but the UK Royal College of GP and the College of Physicians of Family Medicine Ontario (CPSO) have a reciprocal agreement so that my husband does not need to retrain ie residency, he can go straight into practice with the "supervision" but still needs to prove himself with what used to be two exams, has actually now been amalgamated into one rather expensive exam.

I think for a country that is rather short on family physicians they could make it a teeny tiny bit easier to work here. Fortunately my husband really wants to come over to work, so is prepared to do whatever it takes to get here.

Therein lies the conflict. Canada needs doctors, but the provincial bodies who represent doctors like things as they are. With limited supply and increasing demand, they can charge more for their services.

Everybody keeps asking me actually about this and I have no response, but why doesn't Canada have enough doctors or each province? It can't just be geography, can it? Why don't they train what they require? There were a few doctors looking to retire in the area we went to, but weren't able to find someone to cover their practice list.

I think given the age of your children you will be fine regardless of the time of year you move. I moved with 2 of my 3 kids last October to Manitoba.....we were only here a few days and the snow fell.....and fell.....and fell......and it didn't stop until May!! You will make friends quickly through schools and nursery etc......buy their snow clothes here if and when required.....and best of luck

They are as far as the government is concerned. Since they are new to practicing in Ontario/Canada, they are both monitored (prescriptions, etc.).

I think a big part of the reason is due to doctors who trained and qualified in countries other than Britain, the US, Australia, etc. as the education systems in some non-western countries simply isn't up to our standards.

I had a bad experience with a foreign trained doctor a few years ago when my regular family doctor was on vacation. I had broken a finger in three places but he insisted that, because my fingers were kind of reddish in colour, I hadn't broken my finger but had a skin condition. I explained to him that my fingers have always turned that colour in cold weather and that, having broken more bones over the years than I can count, I know exactly how it feels to break a bone. He insisted that I was wrong, took a razor blade, slit my finger open, and then couldn't understand why it was bleeding but no pus was coming out. I said a few choice words and left. About half an hour later I popped into another walk-in clinic where a girl I had gone to high school with worked as a nurse. She got me in to see a doctor who then sent me for x-rays and those confirmed that I had, indeed, broken the finger in three places. Because the x-ray place had given me my x-rays and I had to return them, I had them with me when I left that second doctor's office. I went back into the first one, asked to see the same doctor again, showed him the x-ray, and let him know that he should learn to listen to his patients. I said a couple of other things but those cannot be repeated here without me getting hit with the banhammer

When I was in graduate school, a guy in our department had come over from Pakistan. There he had earned a B.A. after two years of university and a Master's after four years of university. He had applied to the PhD program that I was in but was only allowed into the Master's program because here in Ontario after four years of university we only earn a B.A. and a Master's takes another one to two years (and both of those degrees are required for entry into a PhD program). He said his family was angry that the university was making him do another Master's and wasn't allowing him into the PhD program but after being here a little while he understood why and said that he now grasped that his Master's from Pakistan was only at the same level as a Canadian B.A.

So, while it might seem like they are making it unnecessarily tough on foreign trained doctors, a lot of that has to do with people coming from education systems that simply are not up to par with those in western countries.




Not true. See above.

And doctors cannot charge more, regardless of demand, because their rates are set by the provincial governments, not by the doctors themselves.

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/...ob/sob_mn.html

A lot of it has to do with the availability of medical school places. In provinces with smaller populations there will only be on medical school. In provinces with larger populations there will be several but spaces in those programs are limited and are tied to government funding. And starting new medical schools is a long, involved process. I spent a decade in academia and know the hoops that have to be jumped through to, for example, add fields to PhD programs in the Humanities. The hoops for establishing a medical school are far far worse. The university where I did my undergrad recently set up a medical school in combination with the university where I was doing my PhD (that university has a long established medical school) and they did that (partnered with another university that already had a med school) because that made the process shorter. But even then, it took a few years to get it up and running.