Canadian Medical School Graduate To Australian Residency

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EngrGuy

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Hi there,

I'm a Canadian Medical School and looking to move to Australia to perhaps do my residency. I know that they have the British system there and require an Internship / Foundations 2 years after completing their MBBS. As an MD with my clerkship already done (assuming an equivalent to an internship) - where would that leave me as a transfer?

Would I need to complete the foundation years before the residency, or would I go directly into residency? Also - for a general practitioner, I've read mixed reviews as to how long it is, and my understanding as it would be longer due to the foundation years. Just curious if I could skip those intern years and go right into GP training.

Also - backwards to that (out of curiosity), somebody completing a MBBS in Australia without doing their foundation years, would they be able to go into Canadian Residency as an IMG without essentially doing a clerkship?

Thanks!

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Hi there,

I'm a Canadian Medical School and looking to move to Australia to perhaps do my residency. I know that they have the British system there and require an Internship / Foundations 2 years after completing their MBBS. As an MD with my clerkship already done (assuming an equivalent to an internship) - where would that leave me as a transfer?

Would I need to complete the foundation years before the residency, or would I go directly into residency? Also - for a general practitioner, I've read mixed reviews as to how long it is, and my understanding as it would be longer due to the foundation years. Just curious if I could skip those intern years and go right into GP training.

Also - backwards to that (out of curiosity), somebody completing a MBBS in Australia without doing their foundation years, would they be able to go into Canadian Residency as an IMG without essentially doing a clerkship?

Thanks!
Hey sorry I don't know the official answers to your questions, though I'd love to hear from those who might.

But anecdotally, I've met GPs here in Australia who have told me they finished their GP training as PGY4. So I'm assuming that's the shortest amount of time you can become a GP in Australia i.e. 4 years from graduating med school.

Also the term "resident" in Australia means PGY2 (or later). You're normally given a 2 year contract after med school, i.e., you do an internship year and then a resident (RMO) year. Some or maybe now many people do senior RMO years (PGY3, etc), especially for competitive specialties (e.g. surgery, anaesthetics).

Registrar in Australia = resident in the US (and I assume Canada too -- sorry I don't know the Canadian system very well).

I believe GPs only need to do an intern year and then they can apply to become a registrar? But not 100% sure, hopefully someone like @pitman can answer this, because he would definitely know.

This is just through talking to interns/RMOs, so it might not be accurate, but I did hear that last year it was a bit more competitive than usual to become a GP. I heard there was something like 2000 applicants nationwide for about 1200 spots, hence about 800 people didn't get in that year. But again this is all anecdotal so maybe it's not correct. Again someone like @pitman would definitely be able to give you accurate info. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
 
Thank you Bashwell,

Almost seems a shame to have to do double the time in Australia considering it's 2 years in here Canada. I wonder if I would be able to transfer directly to be a 'registrar' and it would only have to be 3 years.

thanks again!
 
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In my opinion, it's best to finish Family Medicine/ General Practitioner here in Canada and then try to move to Australia. You can finish it in half the time here and there are agreements among both countries recognizing Family Medicine and from what I hear it's fairly easy to switch over. Also, don't quote me on this, but if you do your training here, you might not have to work in underserved areas in Australia as most international training graduates have a 10 year contract working in those areas.

Just my 2 cents.
 
I think the 10 year moratorium would apply to any international doctors though, at least from what I've heard. But maybe an Aussie GP can verify as I might be wrong since I'm local rather than international and so haven't really looked into it myself.
 
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The 10 year moratorium only targets GPs who want to open their own private practise. If you work in a hospital, there is nothing barring you from working in central Sydney or some big city
 
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