Study Shows One in Six Medical Specialists Unable to Find Work

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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A recently conducted study, released by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, has found astonishing results despite the number of complaints in the past about doctor shortages and long wait times for surgeries. The report concluded that an estimate of nearly one in every six recently graduated medical specialists is unable to find work in their field. Moreover, it said that one in every five of the new specialists have no other option but to take a series of short term fill-in posts to stay working.

Executive director for health systems innovation for the college and principal investigator of the study, Danielle Frechette, pointed out in the report that different type of physicians are having trouble finding work including urologists, critical care specialists, gastroenterologists, ophthamologists, orthopedic surgeons and general surgeons, along with doctors from several other sub-specialties as well.

A health policy consultant based in Saskatchewan, Steven Lewis, highlighted that this report is a proof that extreme steps taken more than 15 years ago ended up saving one problem by creating another. He alleged that the situation has gotten so worse, since medical schools are continuing to graduate as specialists at current levels for the next few years at least. Lewis highlighted that “I think we overshot the mark,” explaining that “I think that there is no question that … almost doubling medical school enrolments since the late 1990s combined with easier paths to licensure for international medical grads was the wrong thing to do. We didn’t think it through as a country.”