A Health Care Question for Canadian myLotters

Ecuador
December 18, 2008 10:57am CST
I have a question, and if I get enough responses, I'm going to forward the link to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. More than half of the people in Canada can not find a family doctor. 1 of 35 doctor's on the "find a doctor" link on the Ministry's website are still accepting patients. Most people have to take their medical concerns to walk-in clinics. This is a problem because they see a different doctor every visit, so health trends and problems can be missed. On the other hand, Canada is swarming with accredited Doctor's from other countries. Many of these Doctor's are forced to work in jobs outside of their field because Canada does not accept their creditials and does not have a coherant credential process. Case in point, I know a Heart Surgeon from Beijing, China who was told she could be trained to work as a hair stylist or nail technition. In order to work as a Doctor, she would have to apply to medical school (at international student prices) and start from scratch. She ended up going home to Beijing, because she couldn't support her family here. Another Doctor I know, is a professor at the University of Toronto because he cannot practise medicine in Canada. He was a Doctor in Portugal. I think it's funny he's allowed to teach people how to be Doctor's, but not be allowed to be a Doctor himself. I believe Canada needs to develop an accreditation process where Doctor's from other countries can have their knowledge and skills testest so they can enter our medical workforce. Canada is hurting for Doctors. In some fields of medicine we're facing a crisis because of the shortage of Canadian Doctors! I could even see a system where Doctors passing the test process could intern first to learn the processes we use in Canada. Doctor's here may even learn from techniques used in other countries! What do you think about the whole thing? Would you go to a family doctor or surgeon from another country, if our medical authorities felt their skills matched homegrown Doctor skills?
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