Two wings and a prayer: Should Canada make it easier for Canadian doctors trained abroad to enter practice here?

Abstract

About 3,600 Canadians are currently studying medicine abroad (CSMAs). Most hope to return to practise in Canada. But the road back is not easy. These graduates must complete postgraduate residency training in Canada and alas, there are less openings than there are aspirants. One might have thought, amid the endless rhetoric of "physician shortages," that an obvious solution would be to increase the number of residency positions. But provincial governments are well aware, even if the media are not, that Canada is in the early stages of a dramatic expansion in physician supply fuelled by increased domestic training capacity. Last time the physician supply outpaced population growth, as it is doing today, governments choked off the entry of international graduates. It could happen again.