Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

Existing doctors (or lawyers or electricians or dentists any other regulated occupation) benefit financially by keeping out practitioners from overseas in two ways. Firstly, if there are less doctors (etc.) they have more customers each and so can provide more services and so charge more fees. Secondly, if there's famously a shortage of that skill and lots of scary stories in the paper then their organisations can more effectively pressure the government to increase the fee for each service.

People in a trade have a clear financial interest in creating barriers to entry, whether or not they intend to create a climate whereby they're overwhelmed, they certainly don't want to create one where doctors (etc.) are in such oversupply that we each have one per limb.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

That's what I was getting at, thank you.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

Never a more correct bunch of words spoken

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

Well any of the practices that we've spoken to, the actual doctors themselves, are very keen to recruit. It's the government red tape that ties everything up. The Family Physcians of Ontario have an agreement with the UK to recognise GP qualifications, so they are trying to make it easier.

America is course a different culture and we can't comment on Canada yet, but for the UK most entering the medical or nursing profession do it out of a desire to help and heal. I don't believe that Canadian physicians are any different. I fear sometimes that the media and governments seek to colour Joe Publics view of certain groups to gain more power and leave them vulnerable to whatever changes they want to make. This is certainly true of the UK.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

I am a lawyer in Calgary and was a solicitor in England. I have spoken to many lawyers in Canada that practised in other jurisdictions, I have also spoken to many doctors, engineers, dentists, carpenters, electricians that were recognised as experts in their own countries but were told that their own country's standards were not sufficient and that they had to take exams and pass supervision periods to enable the regulators in Canada to satisfy themselves of their expertise. Invariably, all those concerned believed that a) it was a money grab by the regulators; and b) the standards in Canada are not so high that any of them actually learned anything of relevance throughout the process.

Put simply: it is protectionism.

I truly hope your experience will be different but, somehow, I doubt it will be.

Edit: I note that you are a nurse. Please let us know how "useful" your requalification process was to you, once you have been through it.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

I'm not disputing that the exams are probably useless and that I'm as equally as qualified likewise my husband. I just don't believe it comes from doctors or nurses wishing to protect their pockets.

One concern of mine is that we've actually come across many doctors unable to retire as they have no one to hand over their patient list and don't wish to leave them without a doctor. They certainly wished to retire and again were very keen for us to come. In the end, we opted for a younger surgery, again desperate for the help. No protectionism over income at all.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

I must defer to your greater knowledge;)

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

Almost Canadian....

Maybe I'll be eating my words in a year or two:)

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

It doesn't come from doctors trying to protect their pockets and anyone who thinks so is misguided.

A doctor can only work so many hours in a week (or day, month, or however you want to break it down). With so many Ontarians being without a family physician, to say nothing of specialists, there are more than enough patients to go around without negatively impacting the incomes of established doctors if that new physician establishes their own practice. And if that new physician joins an existing practice there is a financial benefit to the established doctors in that practice as their practice can now see more patients per week.

So there is an obvious financial benefit for them to have more doctors in their practice and, as I said, there are so many people without a family physician that adding new doctors who set up their own practices won't make any difference to existing doctors because there are more than enough patients to go around and the number of patients that each doctor can see in a given period (whether day, week, month, or year) is limited by the number of hours that they can work.

If existing doctors are really just trying to protect their own pockets, as some here claim, then why are there so many family practices in Ontario that are flat out refusing to accept any new patients? If they were trying to line their pockets they would be accepting new patients, no matter how long their wait times were. The fact that so many of them aren't accepting new patients (and the fact that they aren't is reported regularly) refutes the claims some are making that doctors/ the College of Physicians are trying to keep new doctors out so as to protect their own pockets.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

You're missing the point. It's not individual doctors per se, it's the provincial bodies who represent doctors.

But, if you don't agree with the argument that it's protectionism, then please try and explain why a UK trained/qualified doctor (lawyer, engineer, etc, etc) has to requalify when they come to Canada. What is the purpose?

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

Don't they refuse additional patients because there's a limit to the number of patient visits OHIP will fund? Certainly that's what it says on the wall of the walk-in clinic I visit; once the day's quota is processed no more patients will be seen regardless of how complicated the cases were or how long they took.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

Chris CDN

My husband won't have to "requalify", that would in fact take years! His education is recognised, the exam he needs to sit is to ensure that he is fit for practice and his knowledge of how medicine works in Canada is up to scratch, and he doesn't need to sit it to practice in Ontario, as long as he has a supervising doctor. Some one to check in with. The medical as part of the temp work permit is probably a bit useless given he's coming from the UK and born and worked exclusively in the UK. But again that's a government thing, the LMO is a government thing too. The stuff that's tied us up and made this a lengthy process is the red tape.

Other provinces were easier to work in and didn't require exams, and we could be there by now. We wanted to come to Ontario. It's the provincial governments that determine how easy it is for doctors to come and practice.

Edited to add. He will have to sit this one exam at some point to have a full license. I don't think it's actually unreasonable to confirm that a doctor is competent to do his job. Bet you can think of a Canadian doctor that you wouldn't want to see. Sitting an exam is not the same thing as requalifying, and doctors in the uk are required to spend time every year "revalidating" ie ensuring they are fit to practice.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

Bearing in mind some of the cases highlighted in the UK media of doctors trained outwith the UK and then practising in the UK and resulting in deaths. I would assume that Canada getting a foreign doctor to sit an exam to make sure they are comptent would be a good idea so I agree with the OP that its not unreasonable.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

Ahh. He is coming here on a TWP. From my understanding, the "certification" (for want of a better word) requirements of doctors on TWP are very different to those required for doctors that wish to work here on a permanent basis (at least it is in Alberta). I know one that had been working in Alberta for sometime on a TWP. When he obtained PR, he had to recertify and, IIRC, that is where he hit problems with finding a residency place.

I wish you every success.

Re: Is winter a crazy time to move and resettle?
 

I simply make this point: If there is a shortage of doctors, patients have limited choice. If doctor A has no bedside manner, patient A cannot go to another doctor (on the assumption that there are none taking on new patients) so has to stick with doctor A, thereby ensuring doctor A's income is maintained. If there were more doctors, doctor A would either have to change his practise or accept that he will lose his patients to other doctors, thereby reducing his income. I believe the correct noun is oligopoly.