Dr. Serge Melanson, President of the New Brunswick Medical Society. (submitted)
The president of the New Brunswick Medical Society says a report showing a 12.5 per cent increase per capita for doctors in Canada in the last four years is encouraging, however, circumstances still lead to shortages.
Dr. Serge Melanson says back in the 1980s some new physicians would take on a lot more patients than today’s medical school grads.
“They would have a patient load of two to three or even four thousand and we now know that is not a trend that our new graduates are looking to continue.”
Melanson says new physicians are looking for that balance of home and work to avoid burnout.
Melanson says doctors can’t come here from a foreign country and simply transfer their credentials.
“You have to go through a series of steps to make sure that their training is adequate and their ability to practice medicine in our country is going to be up to the standards that we would consider for locally graduated students.”
Melanson says there are many doctors from foreign countries practicing here. In fact, he says walking into the physicians’ lounge at the Moncton Hospital where he works is like walking into the United Nations because there are so many countries represented.
