Thread by @kootenaysdoc

I was recently chatting with a doctor from northern Saskatchewan.

Sounds like it would be a neat place to practice as a locum for a few weeks during a vacation (I’m not leaving BC!)

Main barrier: we still haven’t moved on national physician licensing

A 🧵. . .

1/16

Both this Saskatchewan physician I agreed on how critical it was for our practices to get locums to rural remote areas of Canada for support.

And we both have ongoing issues finding those locums

Licensing for interested out of province locums is an ongoing barrier

2/16

A national physician license would make access to locums far easier!

I’ve heard there are ongoing rumours of concerns about regular physicians flying the coop

But this just doesn’t make any sense

3/16

I’ve moved provinces a couple of times in my career.

If you are moving permanently from one province to another, the several month application period isn’t going to stop you.

The current system does not prevent doctors who really want to move from moving

4/16

(Not to mention the bizarre mythology that everyone wants to live in Toronto.

But seriously - have you not seen how the Maple Leafs perform in the playoffs? You think rural MDs are that desperate to get season tickets to these iterations of the Raptors or Blue Jays?)

5/16

We need to move to a national system for licensing, at the least for rural locums, to 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑟𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑑𝑎

There are actually a number of MDs keen to work in remote rural in interesting places across Canada

6/16

Before I had kids I was one of those MDs.

I dreamed of working across northern Canada in the Yukon, NWT, Nunavut for a few weeks at a time.

But the licensing was too complicated to go somewhere for a few weeks.

7/16

With the right supports, it shouldn’t be that hard to convince even more medical students and residents to do this work

Lots have interest in working for Doctors Without Borders.

It is equally cool + far easier to pay off med school debt in northern Manitoba!

8/16

I loved my time working in subsaharan Africa but in reality we have places as interesting with populations in Northern Canada who are often, sadly, in as much need of help.

Working up north was an eye opener for me.

9/16

(The skiing is far better in remote rural Canada too.

I mean no disrespect to Afriski in Lesotho, but it doesn’t hold a candle to ski conditions on Baffin Island)

10/16

But even if there are MDs keen to do this work; whether there is an MD in THAT specific province keen to work in a specific community on THAT specific date is a different question.

A larger pool and program would help across the country!

11/16

We can’t expect the current bureaucratic systems to solve this for us.

They have too much invested in the status quo.

12/16

We have seen a bit of progress in the Atlantic provinces, but nationally this is moving at the speed of molasses.

If we can’t solve this itty bitty issue how can we solve the bigger problems?

13/16

What’s happening with national physician licensing @kathleenross1? @alikaMD @katharinesmart @picardonhealth? @nightshiftMD? @avis_favaro? @LaurenPelley?

(All of you have been actually been great on this issue btw)

14/16

In reality this is far more a question for @markhollandlib

We had momentum under @jyduclos but to my eye that momentum has stalled.

Why aren’t @drsdelliscc or @MPJulian pushing harder for national physician licensing?

15/16

The End

(And I’d love for this to be my last thread on this subject - please fix this soon so I don’t have to keep posting these.)

@markhollandlib

16/16

@kathleenross1 @AlikaMD @KatharineSmart @picardonhealth @NightShiftMD @Avis_Favaro @LaurenPelley (BTW I totally did not mean to slight @jossreimer by not tagging her too- it just totally slipped my mind that Dr. Kathleen Ross’s term was done - full apologies!)

14.5/16

@kathleenross1 @AlikaMD @KatharineSmart @picardonhealth @NightShiftMD @Avis_Favaro @LaurenPelley @jossreimer (Really should have included @SRPCanada and @CMA_Docs in my tags too - thanks for the work your organizations have done on this file.!)