Question

Because of federal and provincial subsidy policies and return-of-service agreements, international medical graduates (IMGs) now make up an increasingly large proportion of rural doctors. As a consequence, the shortage of doctors in rural areas has prompted many family medicine residencies to increase their quotas for IMGs in their programs. Effectively, this development is leading to a relative reduction in spots available for Canadian medical graduates. Please discuss the pros and cons of such a development.

Answer 1

Cons:

• There has been little cooperation in attempting to solve common issues regarding rural areas shortage of physicians in Canada.
• A lack of co ordination between provincial medical licensing bodies and federal immigration authorities.
• Inconsistent policies and a lack of cohesion at the national level.

Pros:

• IMGs fill gaps in the primary care workforce in many rural areas.
• Policies aimed to redress the rural-urban physician maldistribution in the United States have been taken into account for the role of american IMGs.