What is wrong with Canada?

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After being rejected across the board in Canada because I'm from Ontario and don't have a 3.8+ GPA (3.6, actually) or a writing sample on my MCAT of Q (I have a 31P, balanced) and despite the fact that I've worked with organizations like MSF, helped start and maintain an NGO, published/attended numerous academic papers/conferences, hold an MSc and have volunteered over 1000+ hours in various clinical settings, I've decided to say that I'm quits with this country. If I lived in any province other than Ontario or any region in Ontario other than South-Eastern ON, I would have at least have gotten an interview. If I were in the States, I would have at least have gotten an interview and likely an acceptance (actually, I received 2 interviews, but applied late and decided against it because I can't afford it).

Screw it.

I'm going to Australia. I've gotten 3 acceptances, 1 waitlist and am waiting on 2 further interviews.

Just searching "doctor shortage" in the national post, you get articles like this:

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1731274

which describes a government unwilling to send hand sanitizer to it's citizens in fear that they will abuse it for the alcohol content and, on top of everything, instituting ridiculous taxes that actually penalize doctors for working too much. To the point that pediatricians in Quebec can't afford to keep their clinics open because the renumeration is so low that they can't even cover their own costs. Stories like this are abound in other provinces (I know of at least 3 separate cases personally, here in ON).

Here's a nice summary on the crisis.
And another

Does socialized medicine not work? Is this the reason that Canada is so closed to accepting doctors in the undergraduate training end and also in the post-graduate training end? Is it due to greed from the CMA in attempting to hold onto the socialized monetary pie that the government has doled out to it's healthcare system? Why is Canada's healthcare system such a closed door despite the fact that we're literally rotting inside? Is it time for us Canadians to lay down and accept the much needed private healthcare dollars to flood our system, both in education and in practice? Why are we Canadians just sitting around and letting our friends and relatives live without proper healthcare (5 million Cdns don't have a family physician) and knowing that the apparent 'experts' in this country have known this for years and yet have done little to alleviate it, if anything at all. Australia and the UK, upon realizing their severe shortages, were able to increase undergraduate admissions drastically and, although have not found ideal solutions for post-grad training, have at least started to address the problem. There are articles dating from the mid-90s predicting this shortage... yet NOTHING has been done. There's change occurring now, but how many lives have been lost and why is it going so slowly?

Personally, I say screw you Canada. You may have raised me and provided me with an undergraduate education, but you also slammed doors in my face and told me to buzz off with respect to achieving my dreams, even though I know I am fully qualified to be successful as a medical practictioner. I remember a while back, a friend from the UK described North America as the land of opportunity. If I were to go back and talk to him, I'd correct him to specify the US.

edit: perhaps this is part of the reason why the CMA has been so slow?

 

[redshifteffect]

Transition,

You are not alone. I get tonnes of PMs from students in your exact situation.

I'm not sure if the problem is just that they don't want to open up new medical schools/training programs ($$$) but it could also be the CMA lobbying to keep an artificial shortage of doctors.

Either way Ontario is extremely competitive, and because it doesn't have provinical quotas like the other provinces many qualified people go without medical school positions.

Good luck to you in Australia and in your future career!

 

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thanks red

it's been a tough slog coming to the realization that Canada is such a closed door, but I'm happy with my decision and hopefully will continue to be in the future. I've attained positions in my top choices in Australia, and have a bit of a plan for the next few years to try and maximize my chance of gaining an internship. Let's hope all goes to plan (which it probably won't, but may as well try!).

the big thing for me will be funding, because, unlike the US government which is willing to provide federal loans to it's citizens, Canada offers very little to it's students studying abroad (~$8400/year). I'm hoping my application to RBC for an extended LOC comes through. We shall see, I suppose. Grrr... why do we canadians put up with such impotent bureaucracy?

it's funny, a friend of mind just got a full scholarship to Columbia and offers from Harvard and Stanford. Yet, he got rejected from ALL Ontario schools. What's wrong here??

 

[SN2BexpAt]

Did u know there are >1500 canadian students studying for medicine outside our borders? U can thank Jean Chretien (circa 1993-2000+) for slashing Med school funding on the premise that (uses food processed French Canadian accent): "Can-a-dah, uh, has, um, an over-sup-ply of doc-tors, yes?"

Also, I see the CMA likes to keep entrance requirements artificially high for the same reason universities hire PhD's: to secure research funding (especially private sector.) What better way to pitch to, say, GlaxoSmithKilne, that entrance requirements for the University of Toronto are higher than Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, et al? No wonder we have only managed to open ONE new medical school (near Thunder Bay, ON) in the last decade. Just one more way Canadian culture, unfortunately, identifies itself as NOT being like the United States of America. We like to trade in doctors for bragging rights, international spotlight on our "high quality medical schools", and most importantly, perks and funding that come from cream skimming ONLY students with 4.0 GPA's, 37 MCATS, enough volunteer work to shame Mother Theresa, and the social skills of an amoeba.

I cannot imagine what kind of dollars a tenured MD prof at the University of Toronto, Macmaster, or University of Western Ontario must make when your faculty can inflate their student entrance req's AT WILL to give Medtronics, Johnson and Johnson, GSK, Sanofi-Pasteur, etc. a public relations reach-around.