Majority of U of S MD graduates stay in province

“A number of good news stories can be found in this year’s results,” said Dr. Preston Smith, dean of medicine at the U of S, “including substantially improved results in filling our internal medicine residency positions. In addition, all 43 Saskatchewan family medicine residency positions were successfully filled immediately.”  

Besides the 56 students who trained here, 35 of the 115 new residency positions in Saskatchewan in 2017 will be filled by medical graduates from other areas of Canada. A further 24 are from international medical programs and have completed further training and preparation to qualify themselves for medical residency here.

“I am pleased that a high number of medical students from the College of Medicine have matched to residency positions in Saskatchewan,” Rural and Remote Health Minister Greg Ottenbreit said. “We value our locally trained physicians and we want Saskatchewan patients to benefit from their training.” 

Of 107 Saskatchewan-trained applicants for residency positions in Canada, 102 were successfully matched to a position. While 56 of those will continue their training in the province, the other 46 will take up residency positions in other parts of Canada, primarily in the western provinces. 

Students graduating with MD degrees must complete two to five years of postgraduate medical education training (residency) before they become eligible to receive a full licence to practise medicine. There is a defined number of residency positions available in Canada and MD graduates compete against their peers to secure a position in their preferred specialty.

Information is based on results released by the Canadian Resident Matching Service on April 12.

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For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:

Kate Blau
Communications Specialist
College of Medicine
University of Saskatchewan
306-966-6059
kate.blau@usask.ca