By ALEX MCKEEN VANCOUVER
BUREAU Tues., March 3, 2020
VANCOUVER—The
disconnect between graduating medical students and a health-care system
desperately in need of more doctors was laid bare Tuesday.
“Match day”
annually pairs approximately 3,000 graduating medical students with resident
doctor positions — they can’t work as fully qualified doctors until they’ve
completed a paid residency in a particular field. Family medicine, surgery or
internal medicine, for example.
Medical clerks and residents perform a
demonstration on a patient that was involved in a car accident at the St.
Catharines Hospital in September. After the first round match day 2020, over
200 medical residency jobs were left vacant. (JULIE JOCSAK / TORSTAR)
On Tuesday,
almost all of Canada’s graduating medical students found out where they will
complete their residencies. However, this year, 223 positions were left vacant.
That’s 223 doctor jobs unwanted by Canada’s medical graduates — or programs
that didn’t want the graduates on offer this year.
Until a second
match takes place later this month, that means 170 family medicine jobs are
unfilled while almost five million Canadians go
without access to primary care physicians. Family doctors have patient rosters
of, on average, about 1,500 people, so those 170 unfilled positions could equal
about 250,000 patients without a dedicated general practitioner.
Tuesday, the
Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) released data showing 223 spots have
gone unfilled after the first of its two rounds of matching graduating medical
students to residency spots. CaRMS said it wouldn’t release the number of
unmatched graduates until after the second round later this month, but the
association representing medical students across the country told The Star the
number is about 150.
“It’s a
difficult time (for unmatched grads) because they’re processing that they
haven’t gotten matched to a program, and they have to put together an
application that is competitive for the second round,” said Victor Do,
president of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students.
Graduating
medical students are matched to available residency positions by the nationwide
Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS) algorithm in two rounds. Students
rank their top program choices, and medical schools, which run the residency
programs, rank their top candidates. In some cases, grads were ranked too low,
or not at all, by their own choices, leading them to go unmatched.
Some, but not
all of the 150 unmatched graduates will get one of the vacant positions in the
second round match. The difference is that now they must compete for those
spots with medical graduates from around the world, including Canadians who
studied abroad, in addition to the other unmatched Canadian graduates from
previous years.
Last year, 65
of the 174 Canadian medical graduates who did not match after the first round
remained unmatched after the second.
The phenomenon
of unemployed medical grads takes a toll on both students and the health care
system. Training one doctor costs provinces hundreds of thousands of dollars —
a huge liability if they do not go on to serve as doctors right away.
Unmatched grads
from previous years tend to apply for positions in lower rates. Some further
their studies with masters degrees, others go into research, some apply for
positions in the U.S. Those who go unmatched live in limbo for at least a year as
they wait to see whether they will get a match in the next year. Robert Chu,
25, was passed over twice and wrote about the distress he experienced in
a letter shortly before he died by
suicide in 2016.
It’s a problem
related to physician resource planning. For a number of reasons, each year,
fewer Canadian medical student graduates apply for or are prepared for the
family medicine posts that are available.
“How can we
align the needs of the medical professionals with the needs of the community?”
Do said. “The future of medicine is the people who matched today and the people
who haven’t matched yet.”
Alex McKeen is
a Vancouver-based reporter covering transportation and labour for the Star.
Follow her on Twitter: @alex_mckeen
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