INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL DOCTORS IN CANADA

Professionals looking for opportunities

 The current shortage of skills and professional workers will become more acute in Canada, in particular in the health care occupations.  The supply is smaller than the demand. There are not enough Canadian born and trained individuals to meet the increasing demand of the labour market.  This is evident now in the medical profession. We don’t have sufficient licensed physicians to meet the needs of the population. As a result we have to face long waiting lists to receive medical care, and many towns across the country are without a physician.

 To address this problem, the government is landing immigrants with medical degrees (IMDs) from many countries. Yet, the medical licensing process is long, unnecessarily complex, and not standardized across Canada. While the IMDs wait to obtain a license to practice, they take employment in unrelated jobs. They represent, however, a rich pool of professional talent living right here in Canada and are ready to explore opportunities to practice anywhere in Canada.

 Some provinces are exploring more flexible models to incorporate IMDs into the provincial health care systems or the regional labour markets. They have recognized that the needs of the population for medical care are more important than keeping up artificial barriers that hold back IMDs from practicing their professions in Canada, particularly when their credentials are recognized in other countries with similar standards of practice. Recently, Australia recruited four Canadian IMDs that were not allowed to practice in Ontario, and the recruiters have indicated that this trend will only increase.

 The Ontario organization of IMDs, AIPSO (Association of International Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario) has been the moving force behind the recent development of what has become a highly successful program for the placement of IMDs in under-serviced communities requiring of their medical services. In the past three years, over 350 physicians have been accepted into a residence program leading to full licensing. This program, however, benefits less than an estimated ten percent of IMGs residing in Ontario. In addition, this pool of IMDs is constantly replenished with the ongoing immigration of professionals of which about 75% land in Southern Ontario.

 Your province, as many other provinces, is facing a shortage of qualified health professionals. We can help you find solutions to your challenge.

 You can access at any time the various levels of service we provide through our HR Consulting Group. We are ready to assess the characteristics of your need areas, retention issues, community “readiness”, and match these with the IMDs in our database representing over 20 specialties from over 70 countries, all of them living in Canada as landed immigrants or citizens.

 Our team combines an extensive experience in the process of HR assessment, recruitment, retention and training. We possess intimate knowledge of the cross-cultural issues that the professional transfer of IMDs present. We will match their skills and competencies to your particular milieu. We have been working with IMDs for over 10 years. We understand their hopes, their training needs and we can provide professional coaching to each on of them to match them exactly to your organizational needs.

 Please contact us to discuss in more detail how we can solve your shortage of physicians.