Northern Ontario to benefit from expanded residency program for future doctors

It's a prescription that is hoped will cure some of the ills of northern Ontarians waiting for health care.

The province announced this week  that it would create 53 new residency positions.

A second year medical student at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine says that's an encouraging number.

Josée Malette is also a member of the Ontario Medical Students Association.

Malette says following their three to four years of background education, students can call themselves doctors, but they have to go through supervised training in order to practise.

"Which is essentially our formal training years in the specialty we choose to practise in. So this residency program can last two to five years."

The graduating students obtain their residency through interviewing, and also by putting their names into a matching program that helps place students in the appropriate spots. 

What if there aren't enough spots?

Sometimes students don't get matched, which means they have to wait a year to apply for residencies with the next year's pool of graduating students. Malette says there were 53 unmatched grads in Ontario this year.

The 53 new spots announced by the province are expected to help find residencies for those students this year, so they don't have to wait, says Malette.

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is also making it a requirement that those matched to the new residencies must practise for two years in under-served regions such as northern Ontario.

The Vice Dean Academic at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Dr. Catherine Cervin says it's not known how many will come to northern Ontario, but they'll have to be of a special disposition to work in remote areas — and they will be welcome.

"We do need people who are able and willing to work in northern Ontario who have the skills and resilience to be successful in our residency programs," she says.

Cervin says there have been two NOSM graduates, one this year and one last, who were not matched to a residency program.