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The provincial government has announced it will provide funding for a program at the U of S College of Medicine designed to prepare physicians trained outside of Canada to meet the requirements for practicing in Saskatchewan.
At a news conference on campus Nov. 27, Pat Atkinson, Advanced Education and Employment Minister, said the government will spend more than $115,000 this year to establish a program co-ordinator position in the college, and to develop and deliver parts of a new exam preparation course. She said the money will cover these costs until the end of April, “and I think it’s possible there will be more. This is a beginning, not an end.”
About 53 per cent of all Saskatchewan physicians get all or part of their training outside Canada, said Health Minister Len Taylor. The plans that are taking shape to help International Medical Graduates (IMGs) through their licensing exams and residency training is part of a broader plan to recruit and train international health care workers, he said. Those recruitment efforts will include moving costs, incentives for health care workers practicing in rural or remote areas, and professional development opportunities.
Dr. William Albritton, dean of the College of Medicine and a foreign-trained doctor himself, told the news conference the program will help IMGs address the particular hurdles they face in trying to practice in Saskatchewan. The new program will include assistance like access to educational resources at the college and the U of S, orientation to medical practice, exam preparation, medical English language preparation, mentorships, and refresher courses. It is an extensive program, he added, designed to help IMGs “successfully challenge Canadian exams” and enter their chosen field.
Initially, the program is targeted at about 25 foreign-trained doctors, said Dr. Sheila Rutledge Harding, associate dean for medical education, “but it’s a growth industry.” She added she expects the first IMGs to write their licensing exams with a year or two.
Atkinson went on to say the new program accompanies a proposal to increase the number of seats in the College of Medicine. “We know the physician population is aging,” she said, “…and people are beginning to retire. We can’t continue to rely on the world to train our physician population.”
When asked after the news conference about an increase in College of Medicine seats, U of S Provost Michael Atkinson said the proposal has been made by the provincial government but no details have been made available.
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