'Here to help': Foreign-trained physicians part of rally at Romano's office

A group of approximately 250 people including unionized workers, labour union leaders and healthcare activists gathered outside Sault MPP Ross Romano’s office Friday demanding the province address the chronic shortage of primary care providers at Group Health Centre.

Joining the rally was Dr. Aaron Smith.

Smith hails from Trinidad and Tobago and studied medicine at the University of the West Indies.

Smith came to Sault Ste. Marie in April 2022 and is waiting to be licensed to practice family medicine in Ontario.

However, the cost of writing exams and government red tape is slowing that process.

“My family and I are very happy in the Sault. We want to stay in this community and I want to practice medicine here. We want to establish our roots here,” Smith told SooToday in a phone interview prior to Friday’s rally.

Smith has no shortage of experience in medicine, having worked for several years as a physician in intensive care, cardiology and emergency medicine in Trinidad and Tobago.

He has also lectured in Grenada.

He has worked as a part time instructor in Sault College’s Health Informatics program and, for the last year-and-a-half, as a unit assistant at Sault Area Hospital.

As a unit assistant Smith performs various clerical duties but is not licensed to use his medical skills.

“It’s nothing compared to what I have done in the past. I’ve taken it in stride because it’s an opportunity to learn more about the Canadian healthcare system and interact with people who are in the system but it is below my skill set. There is no bad job but when you are highly qualified it is humbling,” Smith said.

With family doctors retiring at Group Health Centre and the facility having difficulty in finding replacements, it was announced in January that 10,000 GHC patients would be derostered and lose access to a primary care provider and same-day clinic services as of May 31, 2024.

Officials projected an additional 6,000 GHC patients are at risk of losing primary care in the near future if trends continue. 

That followed a prior announcement in the summer of 2023 that 3,000 GHC patients had been derostered.

That situation presents a host of problems for patients and the healthcare profession itself, forcing derostered patients to spend long hours at SAH’s emergency department which is staffed with already overworked doctors and nurses.

“Internationally trained physicians are a part of the solution to some of the challenges because we are highly skilled, but we just need to have proper routes to licensure,” Smith said.

As a trained doctor waiting for the green light to practice medicine in Ontario, Smith said “this rally, for us, is to spread the message that we are here to help, that we are highly skilled and highly qualified and we need the pathway to licensure to be accelerated.”

Smith said the provincial government must demonstrate the will to address the shortage of primary care providers in Sault Ste. Marie.

“They may not understand the situation but we know as residents of the Sault what it’s like to go to the emergency department. If the government is attracting us to come to Canada, why not utilize us?” 

Sault MPP Romano said in January that a committee would be formed to look at addressing the primary care access crisis at GHC.

Friday’s rally, which included members of USW Local 2251, Sault Ste. Marie and District Labour Council, Tenaris workers, Unifor members and teachers’ unions, took place as Romano held his first meeting with the committee. 

“We have international doctors that are talking about the issues and how they can be part of the solution. We don’t need another committee. We need to have action. We need some doctors here now. We need more nurse practitioners that can take up some of the load,” said Michele McCleave-Kennedy, Sault Ste. Marie and District Labour Council President.

“They talked in 2018 about the fast tracking of these doctors and here we sit six years later. They knew this was coming and it just got ignored.”

Mike Da Prat, USW Local 2251 president said the provincial government must speed up the process of licensing foreign-trained doctors.

“I’m hearing that it’s over-complicated and over-bureaucratic. The doctors that want to live in southern Ontario aren’t going to come to Sault Ste. Marie. But these doctors from other countries are here and they’re willing and there’s 50 of them. The government can’t tell me that no care is better than what they assume to be not fully certified care,” Da Prat said.

“What they’re playing with is my health,” said Da Prat, identifying himself as one of the 10,000 patients facing the loss of a primary healthcare provider at GHC as of May 31.

Da Prat also urged the government to hire more nurse practitioners.

“Solving the problem with the GHC and primary care requires investment. It requires them to listen to the family physicians who have said that one of the solutions is to get internationally trained doctors licensed, and they need the staff to support the doctors that we do have in the system. The doctors are spending 19 hours a week doing paperwork,” said local Ontario Health Coalition representative Al Dupuis.

The group headed out from Romano’s office on Bay Street and held another brief rally outside Quattro Hotel & Conference Centre on Great Northern Road where the MPP was meeting with members of the newly formed committee.

Romano did not meet with those taking part in the rally.