B.C. quietly employs foreign-trained doctors as equity and care concerns loom

Dozens of foreign-trained doctors are now working under special licenses requiring supervision in B.C. hospitals, while more are being recruited for deployment as family doctors in urgent care centres, CTV News has learned.

Dozens of foreign-trained doctors are now working under special licenses requiring supervision in B.C. hospitals, while more are being recruited for deployment as family doctors in urgent care centres, CTV News has learned.

Health Minister Adrian Dix confirmed that the province has employed “associate physicians” in acute care, with 120 more positions posted in an effort to get an estimated 400 internationally-educated doctors into B.C.’s health-care system. 

“Working in team-based centres, sponsored by health authorities and overseen by the college -- that we would not waste the talent of all these people and their extended training, but use it to add to and support the healthcare system,” he said in a one-on-one interview.

Dix emphasized that only those with degrees and at least one or two years of hands-on training are eligible, and that they’ll be working in a highly-regulated sector under the supervision of fully-licenced doctors.

“Having them actually working in the system -- boy, what a good idea,” he said. “Why haven't we done that before?”

CTV News spoke with numerous family doctors, both on the record and on background, who were enthusiastic about welcoming new colleagues and helping them beef up their skills, but were apprehensive about restricting associate physicians to urgent care centres alone.

“Health authorities are already struggling to staff the UPCCs with physicians as it is, so who is going to be responsible for the oversight and quality control?” asked Dr. Jennifer Lush, an award-winning GP in Victoria. “Are we looking to just put warm bodies in clinics or are we looking to deliver top-quality healthcare to British Columbians?”