Canada must seize the “window of opportunities” to attract US scientists, health workers: medical association

Canada has a unique possibility of becoming a medical and scientific power, if it moves quickly to collect professionals leaving the United States following health cuts and layoffs, says the head of the Canadian Medical Association.

Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says that American medical professionals often face two great barriers when they try to emigrate from the United States to Canada, since they may need to go through immigration, or they may need to get their training – they have done a little in the United States – recognized in Canada “.

Its organization is urged the federal government to ensure that visas are quickly traced for American doctors interested in moving north and other useless steps in the immigration process “are removed so as not to lose this window of opportunity”.

Reimer says that the best way for Canada to attract more American talents is that the Federal Government works on immigration paths while the provinces and territories work on license problems with their regulation bodies.

“We really have a window to be able to find a silver coating in all the things that are happening in the United States, to bring vast experience and doctors to Canada,” he said.

It is not clear how many US health workers and researchers will eventually emigrate to Canada due to recent funding and work cuts in the south, but Reimer says that their interest is clear.

The Medical Council of Canada, which evaluates and validates the doctors’ credentials, said that in the last six months, about 120 medical graduates per month in the United States have opened an online account on its website, an initial step to pursue a Canadian license.

It has increased from about 10 new online accounts open every month by American graduates in the same period of the previous year.

4 Provinces Quick Path for US Documents

Four provinces, Columbia British, New Brunswick and New Scotland-have already established a quick path so that US doctors are authorized, according to Reimer.

Manitoba is not yet one of those provinces, but his premier says

The provincial recruiters were working with six doctors only last week to have them brought to Manitoba, according to Prime Minister Wab Kinew.

“We are going beyond simply breaking down the barriers to the entrance,” he told journalists on Thursday. “We are also in the design phases of an advertising campaign”.

Saskatchewan nearby He launched his campaign this weekTaking the doctors to target what the province has called an “uncertain political climate in the United States”.

Katrina Philopoulos, director of medical hires at the New Scotland Health, says that her province has engaged with doctors in the United States for several years and is starting to see jumps in the recruitment.

New Scotland has seen an increase in American doctors after it has become the first Canadian province to allow US certified doctors to practice there without extra training In March 2023Philopoulos said.

Nova Scotia Health provides that 15 US doctors will join his workforce next year, he said.

International medical recruits represent 30 % of the total recruits of New Scotland, according to Philopoulos. Seven percent is from the United States and Philopoulos said that the number should increase.

Although not all the doctors with whom the provincial health authority engages will immediately move to New Scotland, that the construction of relationships can be useful along the road, he said.

“If they have decided or are willing to consider an alternative position, then the new Scotland is in the list (list) for them.”

“This is the sunniest side”

Reimer said that while there is always room for improving the Canadian universal health system and can mean less control for doctors in some respects, it is “in many ways … much better” of the American system.

For example, US doctors tend to manage multiple waste than their Canadian counterparts due to the lack of universal health coverage by the country, he said.

Furthermore, they are not always able to make the best decision for a patient if insurers stand in or if those patients are unable to pay for care, Reimer said. This highlights “a wonderful difference” between Canadian and American systems.

The United States tend to pay higher wages for family doctors than almost all other countries, but those doctors are more likely to be mentioned in court than in any other part of the world, Reimer said.

“The dollar value does not reflect all the income problems to take home, in the end,” he said.

“We hope that, showing them that there is an option here, they will really see that this is the sunniest side.”

The Canadian Medical Association welcomes any doctor who wants to move to Canada, but there is a desperate need for family doctors, Reimer said. A Health Canada Report Published in January he discovered that the deficiency of the Canadian family doctor was close to 23,000.

An estimated 6.5 million Canadians I don’t have a family doctor.

The threats of the President of the United States Donald Trump to Canada’s economic sovereignty have been in the lead in the current Federal Electoral campaign of Canada, but Reimer wants more party leader to push stronger to attract American health operators and researchers.

Health must become a front and central question in the platform of every political party, because it is interconnected with the economy, said Reimer.

“We know that income is the decisive number 1 factor of health, and therefore it means that our health is also threatened,” he said.

“So far I have not heard of political parties much on how they intend to improve health and health care in Canada”.