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Today's release describes the immigration of healthcare professionals to Calgary, the barriers they face, and how their experiences abroad may benefit the response to COVID-19. The following thread describes these trends in Calgary and Canada. 1/12 https://twitter.com/policy_school/status/1244650551112916997
Calgary has been the beneficiary of a number of foreign-born medical professionals making their home here, among them doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. In 2018 alone, roughly 70 foreign-born doctors moved here, with almost 40% of them coming from refugee backgrounds. 2/12
Across Canada, we graduate or receive thousands of foreign-born healthcare professionals each year. This included approximately 3265 medical doctors in 2019, about 13% higher than the total number of medical school graduates across Canada that year. 3/12
Despite many being invited to immigrate based on their qualifications, many foreign-born doctors find their work experience and education unrecognized after arriving, limiting their ability to practice, if at all. 4/12 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/foreign-educated-medical-graduates-1.5514374
In order to practice, a foreign-born doctor arriving from abroad must navigate a multi-step process that can involve up to four different regulatory bodies. Other steps include an official language test, which many already passed to immigrate here. 5/12 https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/immigrants-doctors-frustrated-at-being-left-on-covid-19-sidelines/
By some estimates, immigrant doctors can spend up to 42% of their income on a process that can take anywhere from 1-10 years. 6/12 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237441682_Resource_utilization_and_costs_borne_by_international_medical_graduates_in_their_pursuit_for_practice_license_in_Ontario_Canada
Currently, there are ~33 family doctors accepting patients for every 100,000 Calgarians. If we recertified the 2018 arrivals, we could raise this by 13-15%. The mismatch in the supply of doctors and demand for healthcare may constitute "brain waste." 7/12
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/recent-trends-in-international-migration-of-doctors-nurses-and-medical-students_c8129cbe-en
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/recent-trends-in-international-migration-of-doctors-nurses-and-medical-students_c8129cbe-en
COVID-19 is causing several professional bodies and governments to reconsider which barriers are truly necessary for immigrant doctors to practice. These bodies include the British Parliament, the Irish Medical Council and the State of New York. 8/12
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-03-23/debates/F4D06B4F-56CD-4B60-8306-BAB6D78AC7CF/CoronavirusBill#contribution-87214622-D142-48DA-9418-C564D1098BE1
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-03-23/debates/F4D06B4F-56CD-4B60-8306-BAB6D78AC7CF/CoronavirusBill#contribution-87214622-D142-48DA-9418-C564D1098BE1
These range from proposals to waive the fees and expedite timelines for accreditation, to actively recruiting refugees and asylum seekers with a background as healthcare professionals to temporarily work as healthcare aids and medics. 9/12 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus-refugee-and-asylum-seeker-medics-could-provide-essential-support-1.4208280
The State of New York has taken the most drastic step, waiving the licensing requirement for foreign-born medical doctors to provide patient care. 10/12 https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/no-20210-continuing-temporary-suspension-and-modification-laws-relating-disaster-emergency
Verifying the credentials and experience of foreign-born medical doctors is reasonable, but both immigrants and long-term Calgarians (and indeed, all Canadians) may benefit from a timelier, more transparent, and cheaper path to accreditation. 11/12
Alberta may wish to consider some of the above examples. The experience of refugees operating and providing patient care under crisis situations may prove invaluable in the current crisis. 12/12
The link to the full report is again provided here:
https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Immigrant-doctors-FINAL.pdf
https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Immigrant-doctors-FINAL.pdf
