{"id":250917,"date":"2020-04-02T05:52:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T09:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=250917"},"modified":"2020-04-02T05:52:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T09:52:24","slug":"doctors-trained-abroad-want-to-join-front-lines-of-covid-19-fight-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/02\/doctors-trained-abroad-want-to-join-front-lines-of-covid-19-fight-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors trained abroad want to join front lines of COVID 19 fight in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
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That loss feels all that much harder as hospitals across the country are bracing for a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, while facing a shortage of life-saving medical equipment. (Pexels photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tetiana Psaras wants nothing more than to be on the front lines of\u00a0Canada’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

She has a medical degree from a Ukrainian university and several years of work as a general surgeon in her home country, but says she can’t practise medicine in\u00a0Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a physician is not a job, it’s a lifestyle,\u201d she said in an interview from her home in Grand Manan, N.B. \u201cAnd words cannot express the loss I feel of losing my identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

That loss feels all that much harder as hospitals across the country are bracing for a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, while facing a shortage of life-saving medical equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot being able to use my experience in the Canadian health-care system is really heartbreaking,\u201d said Psaras, who knows a thing or two about medical equipment shortages given her experience in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Psaras says there are many foreign-trained doctors who could treat COVID-19 patients when resources are stretched so thin that retired doctors and nurses are being called back to work.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Resident Matching Service, or CaRMS, reports thousands of internationally trained doctors apply for positions as residents each year. There are a limited number of spots in residency programs for international medical graduates, meaning many who move to\u00a0Canada\u00a0with visions of launching or restarting their career must find other work.<\/p>\n

In 2019, according to CaRMS, fewer than a quarter of international medical graduates who applied for residency positions were matched to them \u2014 391 out of 1,725 applicants.<\/p>\n

Only those who have already passed a series of exams are allowed to apply. That’s a goal Psaras is still working toward five years after moving to\u00a0Canada\u00a0to be with her husband.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she volunteers at the Canadian Red Cross and works in quality assurance at a medevac company, \u201cto be as close as I can to patient care,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ayesha Badiuzzaman, a Hamilton-based researcher who got her medical degree in Bahrain, and worked as a doctor in both Bahrain and Qatar, said her current situation is both disappointing and frustrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a doctor, you feel it’s your moral imperative to help in a health-care situation when something like this happens. And there’s thousands of us across\u00a0Canada\u00a0who want to help, who are trying to help,\u201d Badiuzzaman said. \u201cWe’re a huge untapped resource that’s just sitting here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said governments and regulatory bodies should act quickly, before a wave of COVID-19 cases overwhelms the health-care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is saying it’s going to get worse before it gets better,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we think the time to act or at least have a reserve of health-care workers is now, not later when you’re just scrambling to play catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Badiuzzaman and another internationally trained doctor have started a Facebook group for people in similar situations, hoping to make their presence known. It’s now more than 500 members strong.<\/p>\n

Shafi Bhuiyan, who got his medical degree in Bangladesh but wasn’t approved to practise in\u00a0Canada, said if internationally trained doctors can be put to work in this crisis, maybe Canadians will see their value going forward.<\/p>\n

Bhuiyan has founded a program at Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education that prepares internationally trained doctors for non-licensed work in\u00a0Canada’s health sector.<\/p>\n

He said now is the time to bring all these medical professionals into the fold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of all of the sorts of experts we have in this country to support our community health and our health system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the association that represents the regional physicians’ regulatory bodies said that for now, calling international medical graduates to action isn’t on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus has been on licensing recently retired physicians and\/or senior medical residents, and that appears to be sufficient for any surge capacity that might exist at the moment,\u201d said Fleur-Ange Lefebvre, executive director and CEO of the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of\u00a0Canada.<\/p>\n

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, however, is moving in a different direction.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, it announced it was looking to amend its bylaws to allow internationally trained doctors to work \u201cunder the direction and supervision of attending physicians\u201d so long as they have at least two years of post-graduate training and the first part of the qualifying exams.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the college said the amendment had been in the works since last year, but the minister of health fast-tracked it due to the pandemic. It’s now in a mandatory 15-day review period.<\/p>\n

Health\u00a0Canada\u00a0declined to comment, saying the issue is determined on a regional level, and spokespeople for health ministers in New Brunswick and Ontario did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

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