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but now there is a new campaign called #equalchance that’s backed by some heavy hitters, with political and financial clout, that hopes to change the rules so that graduates of international medical schools recognized by canada can openly compete for all residency positions. among its backers are the institute for canadian citizenship , a charity co-founded by former governor general adrienne clarkson to promote the inclusion of immigrants, and vancity, which has provided an undisclosed amount of money to the campaign.
roberto alvarez, who works for the institute for canadian citizenship and is heading #equalchance , said the inspiration to launch the campaign in may was partly due to the public’s recent reactions to racial injustices, such as the black lives matter movement following the death of george floyd, and partly due to the inequities exposed by the pandemic.
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according to public data available from the canadian resident matching service (carms), which places medical school graduates in mandatory residency positions, 90 per cent of the 3,397 training spots in 2020 were earmarked for canadian graduates, leaving just 325 for foreign-trained doctors . that 10-per-cent allotment for physicians trained out of country has been consistent for the last eight years in canada.
also according to carms, 1,435 internationally educated doctors who now live in canada applied for those residency positions in 2020, but only 29 per cent got placements .
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#equalchance commissioned a survey by leger , which polled 2,540 canadians, and found 70 per cent said there were not enough heath care providers in their communities and 80 per cent said they would be comfortable getting treatment from qualified doctors trained in other countries. both percentages were even higher among responses from british columbians. (the survey was conducted in december and january, and has an approximate margin of error of plus/minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.)
a recent analysis of job postings on health match b.c. , the province’s recruitment service for doctors, showed 1,024 openings with 868 of them for permanent positions and the rest for locums. the highest number of vacancies were in vancouver coastal health (274) and fraser (256), but when adjusted for population the authorities with the most severe shortages on a per-patient basis were in northern b.c. and on vancouver island, followed by interior health.
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the society, of which pawliuk is now the president, filed a lawsuit in 2018 against the health ministry, the college of physicians and surgeons and other local health-care decision-makers, challenging the obstacles foreign-trained doctors face competing for limited placements. it has been mired in delays and is still slowly making its way through the court, a frustrated pawliuk said.
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dr. vahid nilforusha was a successful anesthesiologist in iran for 16 years before immigrating to canada in 2010. he applied to residency programs in multiple provinces, including at the university of toronto.
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nilforushan could also contribute to b.c.’s concurrent health emergency, the deadly overdose crisis, because he also focused on addiction medicine in iran, where he successfully used an anesthesia method in opioid-addiction treatment.
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