![['Education Minister Doug Currie']](https://saltwire.imgix.net/doug-currie-2221577.jpg?cs=srgb&fit=crop&h=568&w=847&dpr=1&auto=compress%2Cformat%2Cenhance)
P.E.I. Health Minister Doug Currie says he believes the Atlantic provinces should look at a regional approach to licensing physicians.
Currie was responding to concerns raised by Dr. Victoria Dawson Thursday in The Guardian an anglo-Canadian physician who could not qualify for a license to practice medicine in P.E.I. without first taking an English proficiency exam due to the fact her training was in the Caribbean.
Currie said he didn’t want to get into the specifics of Dawson’s situation, as the P.E.I. College of Physicians and Surgeons is the body responsible for licensing doctors in Prince Edward Island.
But Currie did say this scenario does open up questions about the work the P.E.I. college does in licensing physicians.
And Currie believes there is a case to be made this should be a regional responsibility.
“Instead of our single provincial college, I would like to continue to have the conversation around looking at a regional college,” Currie said.
RELATED: English test keeps doctor from taking position on P.E.I.
He noted 50 per cent of the physicians currently practicing in the province graduated from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and that over $50-million of P.E.I.’s health budget is allocated to out-of-province health services, delivered mainly in the Maritimes.
It only makes sense to look at physician licensing through a regional lens, Currie said.
He has raised this idea with his Atlantic counterparts and with regional deputy ministers in the past.
Of course, Currie does not yet know whether he can continue to move this conversation forward.
Newly elected Premier Wade MacLauchlan has not yet named his cabinet.
“I don’t know where I will be in government moving forward - I may be in cabinet, I may not be in cabinet - but I would like to see us heighten that conversation,” Currie said.
“If we can provide regional services, which we do, it makes a whole lot of sense if we can open up a conversation about a regional college for consistency in (physician) licensing.”
On Thursday, The Guardian reported Dawson’s concerns about being asked to write an English proficiency exam despite being an English-speaking Canadian citizen.
This is due to a policy adopted in 2014 by the P.E.I. College of Physicians and Surgeons that any physicians who obtain their medical degrees in countries whose first language is not English must take a test to prove their skills in English.
Dawson refused to take the test, citing concerns over discrimination based on the fact she received her training abroad.
Within 48 hours of withdrawing her application to work in P.E.I., she was approved for a license in another Canadian province.
P.E.I. Health Minister Doug Currie says he believes the Atlantic provinces should look at a regional approach to licensing physicians.
Currie was responding to concerns raised by Dr. Victoria Dawson Thursday in The Guardian an anglo-Canadian physician who could not qualify for a license to practice medicine in P.E.I. without first taking an English proficiency exam due to the fact her training was in the Caribbean.
Currie said he didn’t want to get into the specifics of Dawson’s situation, as the P.E.I. College of Physicians and Surgeons is the body responsible for licensing doctors in Prince Edward Island.
But Currie did say this scenario does open up questions about the work the P.E.I. college does in licensing physicians.
And Currie believes there is a case to be made this should be a regional responsibility.
“Instead of our single provincial college, I would like to continue to have the conversation around looking at a regional college,” Currie said.
RELATED: English test keeps doctor from taking position on P.E.I.
He noted 50 per cent of the physicians currently practicing in the province graduated from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and that over $50-million of P.E.I.’s health budget is allocated to out-of-province health services, delivered mainly in the Maritimes.
It only makes sense to look at physician licensing through a regional lens, Currie said.
He has raised this idea with his Atlantic counterparts and with regional deputy ministers in the past.
Of course, Currie does not yet know whether he can continue to move this conversation forward.
Newly elected Premier Wade MacLauchlan has not yet named his cabinet.
“I don’t know where I will be in government moving forward - I may be in cabinet, I may not be in cabinet - but I would like to see us heighten that conversation,” Currie said.
“If we can provide regional services, which we do, it makes a whole lot of sense if we can open up a conversation about a regional college for consistency in (physician) licensing.”
On Thursday, The Guardian reported Dawson’s concerns about being asked to write an English proficiency exam despite being an English-speaking Canadian citizen.
This is due to a policy adopted in 2014 by the P.E.I. College of Physicians and Surgeons that any physicians who obtain their medical degrees in countries whose first language is not English must take a test to prove their skills in English.
Dawson refused to take the test, citing concerns over discrimination based on the fact she received her training abroad.
Within 48 hours of withdrawing her application to work in P.E.I., she was approved for a license in another Canadian province.
