The following is a reprint of an article on this subject discussed in an earlier edition of the CanAm newsletter….
by Pat Rich
January 17, 2014
The CMA has adopted a comprehensive 10-point plan to address all facets of physician health human resources (HHR), including education, training and employment.
The move comes amid growing concern about physician unemployment/underemployment, particularly in some hospital-based specialties such as orthopedic surgery.
“This comprehensive and unified strategy is very timely given recent concerns about graduates of some Canadian residency programs being unable to find full employment,” said CMA President Louis Hugo Francescutti. “We look forward to working with our colleagues in the provincial and territorial medical associations and at CAIR (Canadian Association of Internes and Residents) to implement our plan.”
The plan calls for action on several fronts:
- a scan of current career counselling services offered at Canadian medical schools will be undertaken;
- costs related to physician training will be updated;
- a list of vacant positions across Canada will be produced;
- the CMA’s policy on physician resource planning (last updated in 2003) will be revised;
- a policy statement on the impact emerging technologies and models of care are having on HHR planning will be prepared;
The CMA Board, which endorsed the new action plan at its December meeting, also acted on a resolution deferred from the CMA’s August annual meeting by endorsing CAIR’s Resident Principles on Health Human Resources.
The action plan on HHR is part of the CMA’s larger health care transformation initiative to ensure the sustainability of Canada’s health care system.
Forward any comments about this article to: cmanews@cma.ca.
