One in nine doctors trained in Canada are practising medicine in the United States, according to a study published recently in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
But that doesn’t bother the chief of staff at Sudbury Regional Hospital.
Canadians should be proud doctors trained here are in demand in the United States and around the world, said Dr. Chris McKibbon.
“We should take it as something of which we are very proud that Canadian and Ontario-trained physicians are considered preferred products not only in small communities like Upper Rubber Boot, but in metropolitan areas like New York, Chicago, London and Toronto,” he said.
“When we talk about the people that we’ve trained, we would celebrate the fact that Shania Twain found a home in Timmins but as the result of many factors is at home anywhere in the world. That’s the kind of medical community we want to be a part of.”
Researchers used AMA stats
The authors of the study found information about Canadian doctors working in the United States by looking at the American Medical Association’s physician master file.
If Canadian-educated doctors who were born in the United States are eliminated from the statistics, the number practicing in the United States goes down to one in 12.
The tide is turning, however. In 2004, the number of Canadian-trained doctors returning to Canada outnumbered those leaving – 262 left and 317 returned.
McKibbon said he has several colleagues who have left to work in the United States.
In turn, Greater Sudbury has attracted many doctors from other parts of the world over the years, he said. We benefit from doctors’ tendency to come and go, said McKibbon,
At the same time, McKibbon says he realizes this country desperately needs to try its best to retain doctors trained at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) and other Canadian medical schools.
McKibbon said the best way to accomplish the goal of retaining homegrown doctors is by making working conditions favourable.
“Moving forward with our one-site hospital will, I believe, be an important element in retaining, repatriating and recruiting physicians. I have no doubt of that,” he said.
“It’s also the case that if we’re successful in making Ontario a competitive place to practice in terms of the kind of procedures we can do and the quality of care that we can offer and the compensation that is offered, as well as the quality of life that we provide, we will recruit people.”
MDs attracted to better pay
More than two dozen doctors have been recruited to Greater Sudbury in the past three years, he said.
The time has come to start thinking of ways to attract Canadian-trained doctors back to their home country, said the vice dean of professional activities at NOSM.
“I know the government of Ontario has been looking at attracting physicians back into the workforce in Ontario as well as international medical graduates,” said Dr. Marc Blayney.
“I know we’ll be taking some extra residents that have trained abroad this year.”
Blayney himself was lured away from his country of origin – Ireland – to work in Canada in 1988.
He worked as a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and as a professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa.
These days, besides his duties as a professor at NOSM, he does some work on the pediatric floor and the neonatal intensive care unit at Sudbury Regional Hospital.
“They (Ireland) lost me, along with maybe about 10 percent (of doctors) at the time,” said Blayney.
“It was a time when a lot of people left and they didn’t come back. It still happens now. There is a movement of doctors.”
Blayney isn’t too concerned his students will want to work in the United States. NOSM students are mostly from Northern Ontario and many want to stay here and help alleviate the doctor shortage, he said.
Some medical graduates go to the United States so they can earn a lot of money to pay off their debt load, he said.
“One of the important things is to make sure there are good bursaries and that tuition fees aren’t rising excessively, and the debt that they have after four years of student life is less than $100,000,” he said.
“We do have bursaries for our students. I know they certainly won’t reach that level ($100,000).
“The students do see that the bursaries have come from people in the north, and they may work here to pay them back.”
