International medical graduates given another chance to apply for Ontario residencies

Ottawa’s Ashok Kumar Biswas is among the internationally trained doctors who are celebrating after being given second chances to apply for medical residency positions in Ontario.

Biswas, who attended medical school in India and has two post-graduate medical degrees, has been working for six years to be able to practise medicine in Canada, which is now his home.

He was preparing to apply for a medical residency in Ontario this fall when the Ontario government abruptly introduced a new policy that upended his plans. That policy disqualified most internationally trained medical graduates from the first round of the highly competitive residency matching program.

At the time, Biswas said his hopes of ever practising medicine in Canada were fading.

This past week, however, he and other international medical graduates learned the program was being expanded so they could apply after a judge granted an injunction against the controversial Ontario policy.

Biswas said he was grateful.

“At least we are getting a fair chance to submit our applications,” he said. “Getting a chance is all it takes.”

Under the policy change, the only internationally trained physicians eligible for the first-round of crucial residency matching would have been those who had done at least two years of high school in Ontario. That would include Ontario residents who left the province to attend medical school elsewhere and then returned to practise.

Physicians must complete residency training in order to be licensed and practise medicine in Ontario.

The policy change was introduced while many internationally trained physicians were preparing to apply for residency positions in Ontario. There is a second round of matching applications as well, but by then there are more people competing for the leftovers. The highly competitive positions are filled in the first round.

Critics have called the change arbitrary and discriminatory and say it could worsen Ontario’s doctor shortage. Some internationally trained doctors say it sends a clear message that they are not wanted in Ontario. The Canadian Medical Association was among organizations calling for the Ontario government to reconsider the policy.

The Ontario government said the move would deliver more opportunities to Ontarians who began their medical education abroad. “We know that medical school residents are likely to practise in the region where they receive their training, and this will ensure Ontario has a strong pipeline of world-class, Ontario-trained doctors for years to come,” a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said.

Members of the provincial NDP called on the Conservative government to rethink its policy after the temporary court injunction.

“It never should have taken a court challenge for these physicians to be treated fairly,” NDP MPP Robin Lennox said. “Ontario is facing a detrimental shortage of family doctors and specialists. The government’s sudden rule changed risked shutting out highly qualified international medical graduates who have already made Ontario home and contribute every day to our communities.”

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