Question

2. Read the short article by Michael Vance, MD, “Provincial licensing process: unnecessary barrier to locum coverage.” Note: A locum is “a physician who assumes another physician’s clinical duties on a temporary basis” (HealthForceOntario, 2018). a. Identify two difficulties faced by Dr. Vance when trying to practice in a province or territory different than the one in which he trained. (4 marks)

Difficulty 1:

Difficulty 2:

b. Identify one solution proposed by Dr. Vance for the problem of physician mobility. (4 marks)

c. If physician mobility is an important problem, and if there are a number of ‘obvious’ solutions, why haven’t they been put in practice? Back up your opinion with at least one appropriate citation in APA format. (There is no single right answer to this question. I’ve provided links to a few short, helpful articles in the References section.)

Answer 1

a. Dr. Vance was licensed with the college of physicians and surgeons of British Columbia. He faced several difficulties while trying to practice in a territory different than where he trained such as:

Difficulty 1: Provincial regulatory bodies needed further proof that he was a qualified doctor, he was required to send 3 to 4 references, 6 passport size photos to attach to the application.

Difficulty 2: He was told to have all degrees and certifications notarized and fill in the details of all undergraduate, medical school, and residency locations. Forms and letters had to be emailed to other provincial colleges where he worked and get hard copies of documents. Thus there was a great deal amount of paperwork required.

b. Dr. Vance mentions that several provinces could make agreements with each other regarding the licensing process, and develop an online system which has copies of all the documents which the province could easily verify.

c. Even though there are several solutions being suggested, there is a lack of initiative to implement these solutions like the one from healthy debate website. They mention that physician assistants could be from local communities who are educated, but even with the help of technology to get the help of expert physicians, some are required to be present in local areas and lack of collaboration and implementation of solutions is leading to them not being put into practice.