A B.C. campaign to attract internationally trained doctors has attracted almost 780 job applications from qualified health professionals from across the United States, B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said Wednesday.
That recruitment effort includes a U.S. ad campaign that launched in early June and targeted health professionals in Washington, Oregon and select cities in California.
“We know that many American health care professionals look to places like B.C. with a high degree of confidence, a place where we believe science, whether you’re talking about vaccine safety or climate change, a place where dedicated and talented health professionals work together to provide the best care to patients,” Osborne said at a Wednesday news conference in Vancouver.
Between May and June, applications from U.S. health professionals have gone to all health regions, the ministry said: 112 to Island Health; 121 to Vancouver Coastal Health; 181 to Interior Health; 154 to Fraser Health; 70 to Providence Health Care; 66 to the Provincial Health Services Authority; and 63 to Northern Health.
Some applicants may have applied to more than one health authority, it said.
Osborne said that more than 2,250 doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and allied health professionals have expressed interest in working in B.C. and signed up for webinars, including more than 800 physicians, a similar number of nurses, more than 250 nurse practitioners and other health professionals, the ministry said.
Helping facilitate some of those webinars for U.S. health-care professionals who have expressed interest in moving to B.C. is Dr. Adam Hoverman, an osteopathic family medicine physician from the U.S. east coast who moved to Nanaimo from Oregon in July 2022.
Hoverman, who works at Wellington Medical Clinic in Nanaimo, said he’s honoured to work in an “ever-evolving” health-care system in B.C. that has the “levers, the tools, the motivation, the spirit and the energy to continuously improve,” which is what he shared with U.S. physicians who have expressed in working in the province.
Dr. Avi Kopstick, a Canadian doctor in Texas who will join Kelowna General Hospital in mid-August, said in a statement that his decision to relocate was based on B.C.͛ s “values-driven health-care system and the opportunity to help expand local access to higher levels of care.”
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. implemented bylaw changes on July 7 that smooth the transition for doctors trained outside Canada, and since then has received 29 registration applications from U.S. doctors, according to the Health Ministry.
The bylaw changes allow U.S.-trained board-certified doctors to become fully licensed in B.C. in a matter of weeks without the need for further assessment, examination or training.
Certification includes the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Board of Family Medicine or the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians.
As well, doctors trained outside Canada and the U.S. who are applying for registration and licensing in B.C. are no longer required to hold what’s called the Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada.
The Health Ministry said the change saves applicants approximately $1,500, the cost of the so-called Medical Council of Canada Qualify Examination Part 1, and shortens the licensing process by several weeks.
The college is also conducting public consultations on a proposed bylaw change to further streamline the registration and licensing process for certain specialties from jurisdictions where training is recognized and approved by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Internationally trained physicians who want to practise in B.C. would be on the path to full licensing if they completed a minimum of two years of accredited postgraduate training in family medicine in the U.S., Australia, the United Kingdom or Ireland.
The direct path to full licensing would also apply to internationally trained physicians who have completed postgraduate training and received a completion of training certificate and certification in certain specialties from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or Ireland.
“We are speeding up the timelines and opening the door wider for qualified doctors who want to care for people in our communities,” said Osborne.
“With these changes, we expect the number of job applications to grow even further, and as more healthcare professionals enter our workforce, patients will be able to see them in their communities.”
The Health Ministry said the bylaw changes follow similar changes recently adopted in Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
