B.C. trying to recruit U.S. doctors amid Trump health-care uncertainties
Physician recruiter says she's seen uptick of interest from U.S. health-care professionals after election
In a throne speech marking the start of the B.C. legislative session last week, the government promised it would look to attract U.S. health-care professionals to help fill staffing gaps.
As part of that, it also promised to make it easier for trained health-care workers from other countries to get their credentials recognized.
It comes as U.S. President Donald Trump makes changes to the American health-care system and as political tension rises south of the border. It's a set of circumstances that's causing U.S. health-care professionals to look abroad for work, says a Canada-based recruiter.
Hundreds of thousands of British Columbians are without a family doctor, and several rural communities have had to deal with intermittent emergency room closures due to worker shortages.
Health Minister Josie Osborne says she wants to convince Canadian health-care workers who have left B.C. to work in the U.S. or other parts of Canada to return.
"We need health-care workers. We know how hard they work ... and we'd welcome anybody home," she said on Thursday.
A Health Ministry spokesperson said the incoming Health Professions and Occupations Act will speed up the licensing process for professionals trained in other countries. According to the ministry, from January 2023 to December 2024, 1,607 internationally educated doctors received full or provisional registration in B.C.
The spokesperson also said the province has expanded a licensing program, that previously had 32 seats annually, to now have 96 seats per year.
The province's regulatory college has also implemented a "fast-tracked licensure" policy to help people from other Canadian jurisdictions get certified in B.C.
Uptick in interest, recruiter says
B.C.'s push to add more U.S.-trained health-care workers is proceeding at a time when the new U.S. administration under President Donald Trump has moved to cut back federal health programs and withdraw the country from the World Health Organization.
The B.C. Health Ministry spokesperson said that prior to the this latest promise to attract health-care workers from abroad, the province already had efforts active across Canada and internationally, including those branded as Health Match B.C. and B.C. Health Careers.
B.C.'s efforts are even visible in other provinces, said Jill Croteau, who is a doctor recruitment specialist for Ontario's Niagara region and the board chair of the Canadian Society of Physician Recruitment.
Croteau says she's seeing increased interest in coming to Canada among U.S. family doctors, obstetricians and psychiatrist, due in part to U.S. political climate.
"In the last ... few weeks we have had an increase of interest from physicians that are looking to come back to Ontario or looking to move into Ontario," Croteau said.
Better working conditions needed: union
B.C. Nurses' Union President Adriane Gear says she supports recruiting U.S. health-care professionals, as well as Canadian professionals currently practising in the U.S.
As talk of punishing U.S. tariffs on Canada has increased the impetus for the removal of interprovincial trade barriers, Gear says that licensing remains a serious stumbling block to recruiting from elsewhere in Canada.
"There's definitely ... red tape and other challenges, that certainly slow down the process that I think the British Columbian government could work on," she said.
Gear also says the province needs to improve working conditions for the nurses it hires, noting there are almost 6,000 nursing vacancies in B.C.
"[We] know that we can recruit people, but the question is, can we retain them?" she said.
With files from Cory Correia and Katie DeRosa