Almost all doctors in Canada support moving to pan-Canadian licensing: survey – National | 24CA News

Almost all medical doctors in Canada assist adjustments to medical licensing that might make it simpler for well being staff to see sufferers wherever within the nation, in keeping with a brand new survey.

The Canadian Medical Association on-line survey of greater than 5,000 working and retired physicians and medical learners discovered 95 per cent want to see a pan-Canadian licensing program adopted in Canada. The survey was performed between Nov. 18 and 30, 2022.

A big majority of respondents agreed that streamlining credentialing of medical doctors in order that just one medical licence is required to practise medication wherever in Canada would enhance entry to well being care in rural and distant communities and would enable for higher use of momentary replacements for physicians, corresponding to locums.

It would additionally make Canada extra engaging for internationally skilled medical graduates who could relocate to Canada to practise medication, the survey discovered.

With Canada’s health-care system experiencing appreciable pressure as a result of a nationwide scarcity of well being staff, it’s by no means been extra vital to search out methods to draw extra physicians to Canada and make it simpler for all medical doctors to go to the place sufferers want them most, says Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president of the Canadian Medical Association.

“We know we have a challenge with numbers (of health workers). We also know that we have a challenge with distribution,” Lafontaine mentioned in an interview with Global News Monday.

“Pan-Canadian licensure is a direct way of freeing up worker mobility.”

Currently, physicians are required to have particular person medical licences in every province or territory by which they practise.

This means they’ll’t simply journey to a different province to assist a colleague or present take care of sufferers in want with out acquiring a licence in that province or territory — a course of that may be difficult, time-consuming and dear.

As a part of its survey, the CMA requested physicians to determine a number of the greatest obstacles they face when contemplating practising in one other province or territory.

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More than three-quarters cited the complexity of the licence utility course of and 68 per cent mentioned the size of time to acquire a licence from a jurisdiction exterior their house provinces was a serious barrier.

Expensive charges related to these licences had been additionally cited as an impediment by nearly two-thirds of respondents.

Lafontaine mentioned he believes there’s momentum for shifting to a extra streamlined system, pointing to not too long ago proposed adjustments in Ontario that might enable health-care staff registered in different provinces and territories to instantly begin working in Ontario.

The Atlantic provinces have additionally expressed curiosity in adopting a regional health-care licensing regime.

Many physicians could think about working someplace new if it had been simpler to take action, particularly if there’s important affected person want or in the event that they had been requested by a fellow doctor or hospital for assist, Lafontaine mentioned.

“For myself, I mean, I live two-and-a-half hours away from Fort St. John (B.C.) and I’d cross the border to help out in the OR (operating room) if pan-Canadian licensure became a thing between Alberta and B.C.,” mentioned Lafontaine, an anesthesiologist in Grande Prairie, Alta.

“I don’t because it takes a lot of effort and resources personally in order to get registered for that licence.”

Adopting a national method to licensing physicians can be complicated, Lafontaine acknowledged, and would contain altering 13 regulatory regimes to be uniform throughout the nation.

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But many research and suggestions have been pointing for many years to the necessity for higher cross-jurisdictional motion of well being staff, together with the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care in 2002, he mentioned.

If provincial and territorial leaders make adopting pan-Canadian licensure a precedence, it will go a good distance in shifting it nearer to changing into a actuality, Lafontaine added.

“The status quo structure of health systems is not working for anyone right now. Patients are not getting access, providers are not thriving in those environments,” he mentioned.

“If we want to make major change in the system, we’re going to have to change the ways that we structure things. Pan-Canadian licensure is a big part of that.”

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