British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix says almost all of the 666 international medical graduates registered in the province this year are now working as doctors, with more than half in family medicine.

Dix鈥檚 comments come amid ongoing health-care woes including hospital overcrowding and many residents being left without a family doctor.

He says as many as 700 doctors who weren鈥檛 practising family medicine a year ago are now working in the sector.

Dix says a new longitudinal payment model that reflects time spent with patients and complexity of their needs is proving more popular with the new doctors than the traditional fee-for-service model.

Efforts to boost the number of family doctors in B.C. also included the creation for spaces in B.C.鈥檚 medical schools for both Canadian and international students, Dix says.

He says the policies have contributed to graduating doctors preferring B.C. to nearby jurisdictions such as Alberta, with as many as 80 per cent of locally trained professionals staying in the province.

鈥淚n B.C., when we train doctors here, they stay here,鈥� Dix said at a news conference on Wednesday, noting that Alberta retains about 60 per cent of the doctors it trains.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 because of the priority we are giving especially to family practice, but to medical practice and the support that we give to our health officials including, for example in COVID, our provincial health officer,鈥� Dix said.

The registration of 666 international medical graduates this year with the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons was included this month in the first update to the province鈥檚 $1-billion multi-year health human resource strategy.

A statement by the college said not all registrants are necessarily practising in B.C., as the figure includes associate physicians, academics, and visiting physicians who could have already left.

The province鈥檚 update said 578 internationally educated nurses were registered in 2023, almost double the number registered in 2022.

Dix had previously said that the province needed to dramatically increase the number of health-care professionals to close gaps in the system and keep up with population growth.

Beyond family medicine, a 鈥渟ignificant number鈥� of the international medical graduates registered in B.C. this year are involved in specialty medicine, Dix said.

The province is also sending international medical graduates to rural and remote communities, under 鈥渞eturn of service programs鈥� that require doctors to agree to the postings in exchange for government-funded training.

Dix said the province is meeting its targets in these programs and hopes the staffing situation will improve as investments continue.

鈥淭he reason that system has been successful, why it鈥檚 attracting people from all over the country and the world, is because it recognizes the central role of family practice in health care in the province,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot of doctors who are seeing new patients they didn鈥檛 see last year, so it makes a real difference for people.鈥�

READ ALSO:

READ ALSO: