Tories
put Doctors on Fast Track to Nowhere
QUEEN'S PARK
- The Tories planned accreditation process puts
internationally trained doctors on "a fast track to nowhere,"
said NDP Health Critic Shelly Martel.
"The
Tories dim idea to solve our doctor shortage is to steal doctors from
other under-serviced jurisdictions in Canada and elsewhere in the
world," said Martel. " They too suffer from a critical shortage
of doctors, yet Ontario has thousands of internationally trained
physicians who cannot practice here. Let's accredit them and get them to
work rather than sideline them to engage in global raiding."
Earlier
today the government trumpeted a plan they said would help solve Ontario's
doctor shortage and recognize foreign-trained doctors. But the plan does
nothing to fast track the accreditation process for physicians already
residing in Ontario. Instead, they plan to recruit doctors from elsewhere.
The
NDP would begin filling the 588 general practitioner vacancies by swiftly
granting conditional licenses to qualified,
internationally-trained doctors. Manitoba conditionally grants licenses
within three days. The practice has the full approval of the Manitoba
College of Physicians and Surgeons and the University of Manitoba faculty
of medicine. In Ontario the process takes at least three to six months.
"There
are too many under-serviced communities in Ontario," said Martel.
"This ranges from Northern Ontario, to large cities in Southern
Ontario, to communities in Toronto where people who do not speak English
need doctors who speak their language. We need to get to work on this now
using the NDP's bright ideas, not Tory dim vision, as the guide."