Health committee  More than half of them do. It's called the “practice-ready assessment”. It was designed primarily for physicians who had come into Canada to work either as general internists or as family physicians. In order to assess the specialist and the subspecialist physicians, you almost n

Health committee  That's correct. Because of resources, it is a competitive process, so we have way more applicants who would probably qualify if there were an unlimited number of assessment positions.

Health committee  I could find that for you. I don't have it at my fingertips. It's relatively modest, but it depends on the jurisdiction. Approximately 25%—and I would say over 25% but I think I will stick to 25%—of practising physicians in Canada are international medical graduates, so many of t

Health committee  It's hundreds.

Health committee  It would be wonderful to be able to say yes to that, but because the other resources it requires are human resources—practising physicians assessing incoming international medical graduates—I think that other side of the coin would have to be factored into this. It would involve

Health committee  Thank you for that question, which I knew was coming, so this is good. We have been asked this several times before. There are two things. First of all, I cannot speak on the payers' approach to this. The regulatory authorities do not issue billing numbers. They issue a licence

Health committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I also have the privilege of speaking to you from the same indigenous lands as those who spoke before me this afternoon. I want to highlight a few things before I start.

Health committee  Well, we can. It's so important to remember that physicians graduate with a certain skill set, and within five years we know that their chances of passing their exit exam are not very good because they've tailored their practice. So they have to demonstrate to the regulators, on

Health committee  I could start you off by telling you that there's no such thing as a legal definition of a team, the last I heard from the Canadian Medical Protective Association, which means that when you need to hold these professionals accountable for an adverse event, it's complicated. We're

Health committee  You want to talk about regulators dealing with out-of-the-box substances, we could, of course, go down the road of medical marijuana, but let's not do that right now.

Health committee  There is no such thing as trouble with the regulator.

Health committee  Regulators do not develop the standards of practice, on average. They rely on the specialty societies. People who do this, this is their expertise, but the regulator will say to these physicians that they need to bear in mind that the standard of practice is x. If they're going o

Health committee  You used the word “semi-qualified”, which has alarm bells going off all over the place, for me.

Health committee  Are these people who you deem require more training and would not be eligible for a licence as they stand?

Health committee  But some foreign-trained doctors will qualify for practice under a provisional licence.