Nova Scotia inks pact with Lebanese university to bring more doctors to province

Nova Scotia is working with two Lebanese universities to recruit family doctors, chipping away at a major shortfall that has more than 90,000 Nova Scotians without a primary care provider.

At an announcement Wednesday, Premier Tim Houston said the province has signed a five-year memorandum of understanding with the Lebanese American University in Beirut.

Nova Scotia will pay for two medical graduates per year to complete their residency in Lebanon. It will also pay for licensing exams, and immigration and relocation costs. In exchange, the physicians will be expected to stay and practise in Nova Scotia for at least three years. The five-year pilot is expected to cost $5 million. 

Houston gave credit to Lebanese-Canadian real estate developer Wadih Fares for brokering the deal. Fares is the Honorary Consul of Lebanon in Halifax.

"The Lebanese community built a lot of [Halifax.] Where would the city be without our Lebanese community?" Houston said. 

"Now we turn again to that strong friendship and relationship and those traditions and look for help as we fix our health-care system and build up our health-care system," he added.

Houston said the province is working on a similar deal with a second medical school, Lebanon's American University of Beirut. He said there is already a "strong relationship" with the school and the province has supported two of its graduates to come to Nova Scotia. It is working, however, toward a more formal agreement.

Dr. Mohammad Srour is a Lebanese physician who came to Nova Scotia in 2024 through the partnership. Now practising at a clinic in Halifax, he said he feels he made the "right choice."

"From Day 1, I felt a deep sense of trust patients place in their family doctor. That's something I carry with responsibility and gratitude," he said, speaking at the government announcement.

Physician regulator approves

Dr. Gus Grant, the head of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia, said he visited the medical schools in Lebanon to look "under the hood."

"And I was able to satisfy myself entirely that these are physicians of excellence and that there's room for them to make contributions in Nova Scotia," Grant said.

Grant said the initiative is unique in Canada and he feels Nova Scotia has "proven a concept."

"Very specific, targeted recruitment, when supported by diplomatic ties and received by a welcoming community, can bear fruit," he said.

Big announcement, small numbers

More than 91,000 Nova Scotians are on the province's need-a-family-practice registry. 

NDP health critic Rod Wilson — who is also a practising physician — noted that Health Minister Michelle Thompson has estimated the province needs hundreds more family doctors in the next five years to make up the shortfall.

He said the province made a big announcement about small numbers.

"Helpful to get every single doc here, but I don't see the impact coming," he said.