Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am a trained medical laboratory technologist as well as being the executive director for the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science. I have a passion that runs deep for this profession, and you might say that I'm also married to the profession, as my wife is a current practitioner as well.
The Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science is the national certifying body for medical laboratory technologists and medical laboratory assistants in Canada. It is also a voluntary not-for-profit professional society that represents 14,000 medical laboratory professionals who work in almost every community in Canada.
Each and every one of you has had an encounter with the work of our profession at some time in your life. Medical laboratory technologists conduct sophisticated medical tests on blood, body fluids, and just about everything else they send to the laboratory. Test results are used by physicians to evaluate and make informed decisions about their patients' health and possible treatment. We are the people who work behind the biohazard “Do Not Enter” door, and therefore many people do not know or understand what it is that we do.
I'd like to share with you briefly some recent results from our elite survey study, which indicated that, of national decision-makers, over 60% of elected officials were unaware that medical laboratory professionals were Canada's third largest health profession; and secondly, that almost half of them did not know that up to 85% of medical decisions are based on medical laboratory results.
We recognize from these survey results that our profession has more work to do in order to help both elected officials and the general public understand our profession's contributions to health care. Our members are the diagnostic engine of the health care system and the lack of decision-maker awareness of our members' roles will only exaggerate the already existing funding and human resource challenges we face.
In preparation for our main point for this committee's consideration, I need to share with you a little bit about the regulatory environment for our profession in Canada.
Medical laboratory technologists are regulated in six provinces: Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Employers in unregulated provinces also usually require CSMLS certification as a condition of employment for MLTs. CSMLS certification is entrenched as the gold standard for the entry-level requirement for medical laboratory technologists in Canada.
In 1999, our Council on National Certification approved a new process to determine the eligibility of internationally trained MLTs to the CSMLS certification exams. This process, called prior learning assessment, has three steps. The first is an evaluation of the academic credentials by external experts for document authenticity and equivalency; second is a proof of successful completion of language proficiency tests; and third—and we feel most important—is the thorough evaluation of the initial medical laboratory training program and a review of the experiential learning, professional development, and work experience in medical laboratory science. This work of the PLA process is conducted by CSMLS staff in our national office in Hamilton.
Once an individual has successfully completed all three steps, they are deemed eligible to write the CSMLS national certification exam. We do not grant certification without examination.
Due to the current and growing shortage of medical laboratory technologists in Canada, there's been an increased demand for PLAs. This increased demand has placed tremendous stress on our limited resources in the CSMLS certification area, as this process and these clients are very resource-intensive.
Currently, a significant proportion of those applying for assessment come from countries in the Middle East and the developing world, where standards are significantly different in our profession. Language proficiency and varying cultural norms and practices also pose additional challenges. It's concerning that less than half of all PLA applicants are deemed eligible to write the CSMLS exams. Even more concerning is the success rate for internationally educated professionals who challenge that exam. It's significantly less than that of the graduates for Canadian-accredited training programs.
A recent study found that internationally educated applicants who had completed a bridging program had a pass rate comparable to graduates of accredited training programs in Canada. Language proficiency was also noted as a significant determinant of success.
Our challenge to this committee is to recognize that the integration of internationally educated professionals into the Canadian workforce is a significant problem for all health professions, including medical laboratory technology. As ours is one of the five priority health professions identified by the Advisory Committee on Health Delivery and Human Resources, CSMLS is working closely with Health Canada and HRSDC on a number of initiatives to address future health human resources needs for our profession, including internationally educated health professions. CSMLS is committed to ensuring that their credentials are assessed fairly and efficiently, while at the same time safeguarding the integrity of the national certification process.
Previous barriers to certification, such as residency requirements and a requirement for Canadian work experience, have been identified and removed. Medical laboratory science is the only health profession with one-stop shopping for the assessment and evaluation of foreign credentials. A recent external audit found our process to be leading-edge and a model for others to follow.
While there are opportunities for improvement, CSMLS, as a not-for-profit, will be limited in the number we can address without additional funding. Clearly, we have done our part. We welcome the recent announcement to allocate $18 million towards establishing an agency for the assessment and recognition of foreign credentials. But it's clear that more support is required from the federal government to assist the voluntary not-for-profit professional associations that are already providing this service to the Canadian health system. It's the current practitioners who have funded this process. It's been done on the backs of the current workers. We are concerned that with a shrinking membership as baby boomers exit our industry, the future sustainability of this process will be in jeopardy.
We'd like to ask you to consider the following recommendations: to provide subsidies and financial assistance to voluntary not-for-profit organizations that provide prior learning assessment on a national basis to ensure that no unfair burden is placed on those organizations; to consider providing sustainable, ongoing funding for full-time bridging programs; to ensure that immigrants are given accurate information about regulatory requirements for health professions in Canada; to ensure that immigrants are given accurate information about employment opportunities for medical laboratory professionals in Canada; and finally, to develop appropriate language assessment tools and courses for internationally educated health professionals.
Thank you.