A Vancouver Island doctor says his specialty is being “swamped” and facing a backlog of thousands of referrals.
Dr. Paul Winston is a physiatrist, specializing in rehabilitating patients with neurological disorders such as spinal injuries and strokes.
He told Global News that his clinic at Victoria General Hospital is facing a backlog of 700 cases, while the two other clinics on the island have waitlists of more than 1,000 patients.
“We are completely incapable of hiring more people because of this multi-python Kafka-esque barrier that is so normal in the rest of Canada — you just graduate, you start testing,” Winston said.
“In B.C., the process can take up to 10 months to a year to get a doctor just be able to perform the test.”
Winston said B.C. has the highest standards in Canada, which is not a bad thing, but other provinces don’t have the same requirements to start working as doctors.
“I moved here 18 years ago and it took me about five months just to find anyone in the government who could help me set up because nobody knew,” he said.
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“And over the last 18 years, at times I had to call the doctors of B.C. Ombudsman person because there were five different ministries in B.C., MSP, Health Insurance BC, Teleplan, all of these agencies required just to allow you to do the test.”
Winston said that in provinces such as Ontario and Quebec, people can graduate and start work.
He said there is a lack of standard operating protocol.
Winston is calling on the provincial health minister to cut through the regulations and red tape he says are preventing more physiatrists from practicing in B.C.
“We’re the only province that requires the exam, but UBC refuses to allow the graduating residents to write the exam,” he said.
“So they can’t start practicing. So you have the only province that doesn’t let doctors practice without the license and then you don’t let them practice.”
In a statement to Global News, Minister of Health Josie Osborne said that the government continues to hire doctors, nurses and other health-care workers across specialties.
“We know that (there) is more work to do,” she said.
“That’s why we are fast-tracking credential recognition for U.S. doctors — including for physiatrists and neurologists — and ramping up our recruitment efforts.
“We are also training more doctors here in B.C. by expanding the UBC Neurology and Physiatry residency programs, adding more medical school seats at UBC, and building a new medical school at Simon Fraser University.”
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