Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care - Media Section - Health Update - Doctors and Nurses

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Supplying More Doctors For Ontario

More Ontario Doctors Trained

The Ontario government is increasing access to physicians throughout the province, and introduced the following Health Professional Human Resources initiatives :

increasing the number of medical school students by 30 per cent, from 532 to 692;
developing a two-site Northern medical school with full campuses in Sudbury and Thunder Bay (for more information, see the Northern Ontario Medical School website);
implementing two new rural and regional training networks in southwestern Ontario (with a focus of the Windsor area) and central south Ontario (with a focus on Niagara region and Simcoe County);
accelerating the addition of more than 50 rural, regional and northern postgraduate training positions in enhanced family medicine and core specialties; and
supporting the Professional Association of Internes and Residents (PAIRO) to implement the Resident Placement Program to match new physician graduates to underserviced communities.
Offering a Free Tuition program to encourage new physicians to practice in undersupplied communities in return for up to $40,000 in tuition and a location incentive grant

More Foreign Doctors Trained

The government has already increased physician access by working to get more foreign-trained doctors practising in Ontario, with initiatives such as :

more than doubling the training spaces available to foreign-trained doctors (from 24 to 50); and
introducing a new program to quickly assess 40 recently practising foreign-trained doctors so that they can practise in underserviced areas (to be increased to 50 this year).

Further opportunities for foreign-trained doctors are being developed under a government plan to add 650 new practising physicians over the next five years. This plan includes such steps as :

creating 60 new advanced level postgraduate positions in 2003/04 and up to 85 the following year;
adding 25 entry level positions, beginning in 2003/04, with the positions dedicated to foreign-trained doctors in 2004/05;
creating a centralized resource office and assessment centre for all foreign-trained doctors; and
establishing a fast-track process to assess and license physicians currently practising outside the province, so that they can practise immediately in underserviced areas in Ontario.