Patients under George Rice’s care between 2019 and September 2023 might have been exposed to blood-borne infections.
Despite the slower-than-expected uptake in the beginning of the Practice Ready Ontario program, the province now says it's aiming to bring 100 foreign-trained physicians to northern and rural areas by the end of the year.Roughly 2.5 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor, according to the Ontario Medical Association. That figure is forecast to double in the coming years as more doctors retire.
The organization said a total of 191 internationally-trained doctors initially applied for the program when it was launched in 2023 and 55 of them were eligible to start the licensing process. It said 27 doctors either left the program or failed to pass its requirements at different points.Ontario appoints former federal Liberal health minister to lead primary care team
Eric Wong, the clinical director at Touchstone Institute, said foreign-trained doctors would normally have to complete two years of family medicine residency training to get licensed in Ontario and this program significantly reduces that process. "They also get exposure to working in typically team environments so beyond working under the supervision of a physician they are also working with other health-care professionals: nurses, social workers, pharmacists, physiotherapists and so forth," he said.Canada is in urgent need of doctors, but foreign-trained physicians can’t find residencies here, leaving many of them to take jobs outside their fields.
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