B.C. to license more internationally trained doctors to combat physician shortage | CBC News
British Columbia introduced a number of new measures to convey extra medical doctors to the province, amid an ongoing scarcity of physicians and strained emergency departments.
Premier David Eby says the province is tripling the variety of seats within the Practice Ready Assessment program, going from 32 spots to 96 by March 2024.
The program permits internationally-educated household medical doctors to develop into licensed to work in B.C, inserting them in rural and concrete communities who want extra physicians and requiring they work that placement for not less than three years.
Eby says the pandemic has uncovered challenges and added additional strains within the health-care system, with too many British Columbians struggling to discover a household physician.
Some, he stated, are proposing to reply to that stress by undercutting the ideas of common public well being care and selling an method that will permit the wealthiest to purchase their option to the entrance of the line. He insisted the general public system is the one approach ahead, calling it one in every of Canada’s best achievements.
“We can’t privatize our way to a better health-care system and we can’t cut supports and get more doctors,” Eby stated.
In one other change, Eby says worldwide medical graduates who should not eligible to be absolutely or provisionally licensed in B.C. might now be eligible for a brand new “associate physician” class of registration with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C.
Associate physicians can care for patients under the direction and supervision of an attending physician within a health authority acute-care setting.
Eby said the regulatory college is also preparing bylaw changes to allow doctors trained in the United States for three years to practise in community settings in B.C., including urgent and primary care centres, community clinics and family practices.
The bylaw changes are expected to be implemented in the coming weeks, with the aim of allowing those doctors to practise in B.C. communities by January.
Team approach making a difference: Health Minister
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix says the tripling of seats in the Practice Ready program alongside the other measures represent “elementary modifications” that will make a difference in the lives of those seeking primary care in B.C.
Dix said there were about 300,000 people in the province without a family doctor in 2003, a number that climbed steadily to over 900,000 when he became minister in 2017. It’s now estimated there are 1 million British Columbians in that situation.
Dix claims that measures introduced in 2018 and 2019 are starting to address the shortfall, and physicians, on average in B.C., are caring for up to 1200 patients each.
Dix says the province is taking more of a team approach to health care, has doubled the amount of nurse practitioners — who work with doctors — and is now adding associate physicians.
“Which can imply counselors, it may imply allied well being staff, dietitians, nurses, and naturally medical doctors,” he said, adding that B.C. has added a net total of 38,000 health care workers in the five years since he took office.
“That’s fairly good,” he said. “We’ve received to do it once more … within the 5 years developing, and within the 5 years after that.”
Dix says these measures are the newest steps to enhance well being care within the province, following the 75 actions introduced as a part of B.C.’s Health Human Resources Strategy in September.
