For one Canadian-born doctor, who has been practicing family medicine in Colorado for the last six years, his next career move is a sort of homecoming.
“It’s been kind of a long-time dream of mine to come back to Canada,” said Muthanna Yacoub. “For me it’s hockey and being in the hills that are basically my antidepressant.”
The province has been working to make it easier for U.S.-trained doctors and nurses to have their credentials recognized in B.C., a process the Ministry of Health says now takes days instead of months.
After speaking to a few physician recruiters at a conference in Vancouver, Yacoub almost signed on with a clinic in Ontario, where he was born and spent part of his childhood. But it was the natural beauty of B.C. that enticed him, his wife and their dog, Hudson.
Premier David Eby is touting the province’s work recruiting U.S.-trained doctors and nurses to B.C., in an effort to address the health-care worker shortage. CBC’s Katie DeRosa talked to one nurse who is starting the journey to move here.
He will join a medical clinic owned by the City of Colwood, near Victoria, this fall.
“He wants to give back and come back home,” said Health Minister Josie Osborne, during a press conference in the clinic on Friday.
The clinic is trying to recruit out-of-province or out-of-country doctors to avoid poaching from other parts of B.C.
Demoralized by the U.S. private health care system
Yacoub had become increasingly demoralized with the U.S.’s private health care system, where insurance companies often dictate the kind of care a patient receives.
“Some days it really feels like you’re treating the insurance company and not the patient and beckoning to their demands in spite of what’s in the patient’s best interest,” said the 36-year-old. “And so you’re having to choose between your conscience and just being compliant — and most of us are kind of getting sick of it.”
The province is betting big that it can recruit doctors and nurses from the U.S. to fill the gaps in B.C.’s health-care system. Katie DeRosa talks to one family doctor who is making the move from Colorado to Colwood on Vancouver Island.
The biggest catalyst though, was the election of U.S. president Donald Trump and the anti-vaccine position of his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Are we going to be able to act ethically and treat patients as we really ought to, following the science?” Yacoub asked. “Or are we going to have to be forced into compliance? And given the administration’s heavy-handed nature, we’re really worried that it’s going to be the latter.”
The B.C. government is capitalizing on that sentiment, with a $5 million ad campaign targeting health care workers in Washington State, Oregon and California.
WATCH | Ad from B.C. government targets U.S. health care workers
The Colwood clinic’s co-medical director, Jesse Pewarchuk, is optimistic B.C.’s strategy to recruit U.S. doctors and nurses will bear fruit.
“This is the first of what we hope will be many recruits,” said Pewarchuk, who also runs Aroga Lifestyle Medicine Clinic in nearby View Royal. “The province’s strategy to recruit out of Washington, Oregon and California — and I would put forward they should also be looking at Colorado — is really a stroke of genius.”
Pewarchuk said B.C. simply cannot train enough doctors and nurses to keep up with the growing demand of our aging and growing population.
“The number of health care practitioners in the U.S. dwarfs Canada. So it is a very rich ground to recruit from.”
For Yacoub, who has dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship, the process of moving to Canada is straight forward.
However, American-born doctors would have to navigate Canada’s immigration system, adding another possible roadblock.
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This year, the federal government slashed the number of skilled workers B.C. can bring in through the provincial nominee program, from 8,000 to 4,000.
Osborne says that’s an issue the province has raised with Ottawa.
“It has been a challenge that the provincial nominee program — the only way that British Columbia has any control over who is able to come in and work in our province — has had a decrease in its capacity.”
The province plans to reserve a quarter of those spaces for health care workers.
As for questions about a pay gap between Canada and the U.S., Yacoub says the salary being offered by the Colwood Clinic is comparable to what he was making in Colorado. He says the pension was also a major draw.
But the final decision came down to values and quality of life.
“I think one of the strongest things actually kind of pulled us to the area was the people.”
