Help Canadian International Medical Graduates (IMGs) come back home to practice medicine in Quebec

Each year, between 50 to 100 family medicine residency positions are unfilled in Quebec. Currently, nearly 1,000,000 Quebecers do not have a family doctor. If each of these doctors would take on average 1000 patients, that means that 50,000 to 100,000 Quebecers will have access to a family doctor.

The Society for Canadians Studying Medicine Abroad is planning to write to the Government of Quebec, the College des Médecins du Québec, and Quebec’s Faculties of Medicine, asking them to cease the practice of requiring the equivalence of International Medical Graduates’s (IMG) medical degree BEFORE applying for residency in Quebec.

In fact, if you want to apply for a residency position in Québec as an IMG, you must send a copy of your diploma and get your equivalence before being able to apply to the CaRMS which results in a one-year delay after med school graduation. Sadly, this discourages most Canadian IMGs to apply to Quebec for residency. Instead, we would ask Quebec to follow the same practice as other Canadian provinces and the United States where this equivalence occurs after one has matched and before the start of the contract (July 1st).

This would mean that residency applicants would apply for the Match and assuming that one gets matched into residency in Quebec, that applicant would secure a conditional contract under the condition that they obtain their medical degree and that this degree is certified by provincial authority. Result: IMGs won’t have to wait one year before starting their residency and will be able to match to Quebec following their graduation from medical school. In addition, this will help with the urgent need of doctors in Quebec and to occupy the many unfilled-residency positions.

Writing a letter to Quebec on behalf of a number of people would carry more weight. Even if you don’t intend on applying to Québec for residency, I urge you to sign this letter to help out those who want to be able to go back home to practice. Please share this with your fellow colleagues or any faculty you know in Canada.

Thank you.

Here’s the letter that we are planning to send to Quebec:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VSs2fk56huRCXq3ITCqySOz7Qic-qQhj0BfcBEVvGoU/edit?usp=sharing

Please indicate your interest in co-signing this letter on the following form (see at the bottom end of the message) + your e-mail address for follow up:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdyRqX1rBn46hiPCLifkQMeuuf-BnUts6ald6-YNS4V0EUhJA/viewform?fbclid=IwAR2OgrC0mg3QlXinI6hQl_yCBsxb4mcOWG7f4_psVGfQaa32V55sEWlvg2U

Here’s a link to our Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/socasma/posts/2115317475304642
For any questions or to remove your name from this letter please contact socasma.working@gmail.com