Foreign-trained doctor eager to work in B.C. ‘if Canada will give me a chance’

Syrian-trained surgeon Hassan Moustafa, who has lived in Canada for five years without having worked as a doctor, says he will soon decide whether he will uproot his family and move to the Middle East.

“If I cannot work (as a doctor) in Canada, I will take all my family and move to Dubai,” said Moustafa, who added he is on the final stage — his background check — with that major city in the United Arab Emirates.

“But if Canada will give me a chance, I will not go.”

Moustafa said he is “very, very happy” with the news that B.C. will be increasing the pathways for internationally trained doctors to practise in this province.

B.C. Premier David Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix on Sunday announced the province would triple the number of international medical graduates (IMGs), to 96, allowed to enter the practice-ready assessment program over the next two years.

The program is the main path for IMGs to practise in B.C.

And internationally trained doctors will now be allowed to begin the accreditation process before they arrive here.

And those IMGs not eligible for the practice ready assessment program will be directed to a new program that will allow them to become associate physicians.

That would allow them to practise in certain health care areas under the supervision of an experienced doctor.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. will also change its rules to allow doctors trained in the United States for three years to practise medicine in urgent and primary care centres, community facilities and family practices.

Moustafa said he welcomes any changes that speed up the process that allows doctors trained in other countries to practise in Canada.

“The rules in Canada are very slow,” he said. “All my friends in Germany are working (in health care) and they came (there) after me.”

Moustafa, who is a surgeon who has worked in Syria before its civil war and then Iraq before coming to Canada, said he works for two to three months a year in Iraq to keep up his medical licence there.

While in Canada, he has worked for a company that tests for COVID. He said he applied to a health authority to vaccinate people against COVID and received training but was never offered a shift.

“I want to work and I need, really, the money because I have a big family,” said the father of three children under 13.

He said he left Iraq five years to immigrate to Canada, following his sister, because the Middle East felt unstable and he wanted to build a better life for his children.

“In Canada, my kids have a lot of things that are very, very good. Canada is the dream (for) everybody, and here at least you are safe.”

But he said he misses working in the medical field full-time and that is why he is considering moving to Dubai.

“I will feel I (can) do something with my skills,” he said.

He said he has completed all the requirements to work as a doctor in B.C., but has yet to complete the process.

The academic qualifications required for eligibility for full licensure in every Canadian province and territory are set by the Medical Council of Canada.

Physicians applying for the first time to become licensed to practise medicine in a Canadian jurisdiction may achieve full licensure only if they have a medical degree from a school listed in the world directory of medical schools, have completed the appropriate postgraduate training program and evaluation by a recognized authority and have been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, according to the MCC website.

The number of positions for physicians on Health Match B.C., a professional recruitment service funded by the B.C. government, on Monday was 1,373. For nurses, it was 368 and nurse practitioners, 155.  

“Anything that increases the number of physicians in B.C. is something we applaud,” said Terry Lake, CEO of the B.C. Care Providers Association.

He said the need in the long-term care homes is for nurses and health-care aides.

He said an announcement earlier this year that internationally educated nurses take a single assessment test to determine whether the applicant had the qualifications to work as a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse or health care aide was a welcome start.

He said B.C. was falling behind other provinces like Newfoundland, which sent a recruitment delegation to the Philippines.

The recruitment in low- to medium-income countries for health care workers by higher income countries has been recognized in a number of online studies as something that causes an imbalance in global health care, something that has been recognized by the World Health Organization and others.

Some 23.1 per cent of physicians were international medical graduates, and 43.4 per cent of them came from low- to middle-income countries, according to 2005 Mullan Institute figures.

A study of the global need for health care workers in 2016 projected a demand of 80 million workers by 2030, according the Human Resources for Health website.

It found that high- and middle-income countries could face shortages because of the short supply of workers and low-income countries may not be able to retain their health workers without higher economic growth.

slazaruk@postmedia.com

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