Health advocacy groups condemn new Ontario residency limits

A new rule from the Health Ministry of Ontario is being condemned as discriminatory and unjust by physician advocacy groups, who say it will worsen the family doctor shortage.

In an abrupt move last week, the ministry began requiring international medical graduates to have completed at least two years of high school in Ontario, to be eligible for the first round of residency placements.

“Fewer family doctors, I mean that’s the end result of all this,” said Dr. David Barber, the Chair of the Ontario Medical Association’s Section of General and Family Practice.

Barber says the change in eligibility for international medical graduates will result in fewer family doctors, and he doesn’t understand why the change is being made.

“Its a purely political decision from my standpoint, it just, it doesn’t make any sense,” said Dr. Barber.

Dr. Barber says Ontario is in desperate need of more family doctors.

This year alone, 60 per cent of the province’s family medicine residency spots were filled by international medical graduates.

However, Dr. Barber says the rule change is expected to reduce the number of eligible international applicants from more than 1,200, to just 170.

He expects the hundreds of ineligible people to take resident spots in other provinces, instead of waiting to apply for Ontario’s second round of matching.

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“They’re going to be taken up by other programs right across Canada, and we’re left out,” said Dr. Barber.

“For sure, I will try other provinces,” said Dr. Therese Bichay, from the Internationally Trained Physicians of Canada.

Dr. Bichay, an Egyptian-trained family doctor, says she will now look elsewhere to complete her residency to begin practicing in Canada, even though she’s already raising a family in Brampton.

She wants the rule changed, saying it’s discriminatory, and a deliberate act of exclusion, which violates the province’s Human Rights Code.

“It’s like making us two levels of citizens now,” said Dr. Bichay. “One level who completed their high school here in Ontario, and one who didn’t complete.”

When she was asked why the change is suddenly being made, a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones wrote in a statement:

“…our government is delivering more opportunities for Ontarians who began their medical education abroad to complete their postgraduate training in Ontario.”

The statement also reads, “…(International Medical Graduates) who have not completed at least two years of high school in Ontario will continue to be eligible to participate in the second round of the residency match.”

The Canadian resident matching service, which is responsible for matching medical students to residency programs, says Ontario is the only province requiring international medical graduates to have completed two years of high school in Ontario, to be eligible for the first round.

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