The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association says the federal government’s decision to slash this province’s economic immigration spaces will pose a significant challenge to the province’s efforts to recruit professionals internationally, including doctors.
NLMA President Dr. Steve Major calls the decision a “wake-up call” for the province and a clear signal that it needs to reassess its recruitment and retention strategies.
Dr. Steve Major (NLMA photo)
International medical graduates account for 30 per cent of the province’s physician workforce, according to the NLMA.
Major says the province is facing a doctor retention crisis and the inability to keep doctors here is having a detrimental effect on patients and the health care system as a whole.
He says recruitment efforts must include a focus on retention and “any province with a top-tier medical school (like NL’s) should not be facing physician shortages.”
