Secondly, there is an urgent need for national licensure. Currently, the application process for medical licensure requires physicians to submit separate applications to each of the 13 provinces' and territories' medical regulatory authorities that license physicians. This limits physicians from providing services in multiple jurisdictions without going through a separate licensure process for each province and territory. This poses a challenge to residents and staff physicians, who strive to deliver care to patients easily and flexibly. This includes significant patient safety risks and delays in care as administrative burden takes physicians away from their primary focus of patient-centred care.
Practising outside of their own province and territory would allow residents to expand their practice to include underserved rural and remote communities. As future physicians, the burden of these applications in the context of all of our other duties and responsibilities is significant. National licensure would alleviate this issue, while also making patient-centred care more flexible and directed to those who need it most.
We released a joint statement with the Resident Doctors of Canada, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Royal College, the Canadian Medical Association, and the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada, advocating for exactly this several years ago and there is an increased urgency for this change now more than ever.