Health minister says hundreds of foreign trained doctors boosting family medicine in B.C.

British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix says almost all of the 666 international medical graduates registered in the province this year are now working as doctors, with more than half in family medicine.

Dix's comments come amid ongoing health-care woes including hospital overcrowding and many residents being left without a family doctor.

He says as many as 700 doctors who weren't practising family medicine a year ago are now working in the sector.

Dix says a new longitudinal payment model that reflects time spent with patients and complexity of their needs is proving more popular with the new doctors than the traditional fee-for-service model.

Efforts to boost the number of family doctors in B.C. also included the creation of spaces in B.C.'s medical schools for both Canadian and international students, Dix says.

He says the policies have contributed to graduating doctors preferring B.C. to nearby jurisdictions such as Alberta, with as many as 80 per cent of locally trained professionals staying in the province.

"In B.C., when we train doctors here, they stay here," Dix said at a news conference on Wednesday, noting that Alberta retains about 60 per cent of the doctors it trains.

"That's because of the priority we are giving especially to family practice, but to medical practice and the support that we give to our health officials including, for example in COVID, our provincial health officer," Dix said.

'It makes a real difference'

The registration of international medical graduates this year with the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons was included this month in the first update to the province's $1-billion multi-year health human resource strategy.

A statement by the college said not all registrants are necessarily practising in B.C., as the figure includes associate physicians, academics, and visiting physicians who could have already left.

The province's update said 578 internationally educated nurses were registered in 2023, almost double the number registered in 2022.

Dix had previously said that the province needed to dramatically increase the number of health-care professionals to close gaps in the system and keep up with population growth.

Beyond family medicine, a "significant number" of the international medical graduates registered in B.C. this year are involved in specialty medicine, Dix said.

The province is also sending international medical graduates to rural and remote communities, under "return of service programs" that require doctors to agree to the postings in exchange for government-funded training.

Dix said the province is meeting its targets in these programs and hopes the staffing situation will improve as investments continue.

"The reason that system has been successful, why it's attracting people from all over the country and the world, is because it recognizes the central role of family practice in health care in the province," he said.

"That's a lot of doctors who are seeing new patients they didn't see last year, so it makes a real difference for people."