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<h1 itemprop="name">English test keeps doctor from taking position on Prince Edward Island</h1>
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<dl><dt class=""><a href="http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/Author-Teresa-Wright/552/1">Teresa Wright</a></dt></dl></div>
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<p>P.E.I. College of Physicians and Surgeons of PEI</p>
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<span>An anglophone Canadian physician
who trained in the Caribbean says she feels discriminated against by a
policy in Prince Edward Island that requires her to take an English
proficiency test before being granted a licence to practice in P.E.I.</span>
<p><span>Dr. Victoria Dawson was seeking employment in Atlantic Canada
recently when the medical recruitment firm she was involved with
identified an opening in Summerside.</span></p>
<p><span>She applied to Health P.E.I. for the position and everything
was going fine until her application went to the P.E.I. College of
Physicians and Surgeons, the body responsible for licensing doctors in
Prince Edward Island.</span></p>
<p><span>The college has a policy requiring all physicians trained in
countries whose first language is not English to take an English
language proficiency test before being granted a licence.</span></p>
<p><span>But it was a shortage of medical school seats in Canada that
led Dawson to look abroad for her medical training. She chose the
American University of Integrated Services, St. Maarten School of
Medicine in the Caribbean. She did her residency training in the U.S.</span></p>
<p><span>Her schooling was all in English. She is as anglophone as any
Prince Edward Islander or anglo-Canadian without even a hint of a
foreign accent.</span></p>
<p><span>That’s why both Dawson and her recruiting firm do not understand why she must take a test to prove she can speak English.</span></p>
<p><span>“They would not accept the fact there was a round peg in a
square hole and they should look at this anomaly as being just that and
exempt her from the policy,” said Phil Jost, vice president of
operations for CanAm, an international medical recruitment agency.</span></p>
<p><span>Jost was formerly CEO of the West Prince Health Region in P.E.I. from 2002 to 2006.</span></p>
<p><span>“(The college) insisted that she do the English proficiency
test which, on principle, is a ridiculous thing to do as far as we’re
concerned.”</span></p>
<p><span>For her part, Dawson says she feels the policy is
discriminatory against English-speaking Canadians who get their medical
degrees abroad.</span></p>
<p><span>“There are thousands of Canadians across the world who are
going to medical school abroad because Canada has not opened up enough
spots to be educated,” Dawson said. “If Canada applies these restrictive
policies, you’re going to find people are just not going to bother
coming back here.”</span></p>
<p><span>That’s why she refused on principle to take the test and decided instead to take her story public.</span></p>
<p><span>With an increasing number of internationally trained Canadian
physicians who already face a number of administrative barriers in
getting their credentials recognized, this is one she believes is unfair
and unnecessary.</span></p>
<p><span>“I’m sure I would pass the exam with flying colours. That’s not
the point, it’s setting up another hurdle for Canadian citizens who are
educated abroad to come back and work as physicians in Canada,” Dawson
said. </span></p>
<p><span>Within 48 hours of withdrawing her application to work in
P.E.I., Dawson was approved for a medical licence to work in another
Canadian province.</span></p>
<p><span>Dawson and Jost did appeal the matter to the P.E.I. College of Physicians and Surgeons.</span></p>
<p><span>But Registrar Dr. Cyril Moyse says the college council ruled in favour of upholding the language policy.</span></p>
<p><span>“To be frank, to avoid criticism, we’re trying to apply it as evenly and equally as possible,” Moyse said.</span></p>
<p><span>Not all Canadian citizens who train abroad speak English, so
applying an exception based on citizenship is problematic, he explained.</span></p>
<p><span>But Moyse says he recognizes the policy as it exists now has placed Dawson and others like her in unusual situation.</span></p>
<p><span>This language policy was one developed by the national
Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities and several other provinces
have also adopted it.</span></p>
<p><span>Moyse is a member of the working group of this federation that
developed the policy. He says he plans to raise the concerns Dawson has
raised with the working group at its next meeting.</span></p>
<p><span>“The issue comes down initially to patient safety and
communication and how to pick out the people who don’t need the policy
and still apply it evenly,” Moyse said. “To this point it’s just been
based on the country of education and maybe that’s not the only way it
should be done.”</span></p>
<p><a href="mailto:twright@theguardian.pe.ca"><span>twright@theguardian.pe.ca</span></a></p><p><br></p><p><a href="http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/News/Local/2015-05-13/article-4146106/English-test-keeps-doctor-from-taking-position-on-P.E.I./1">http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/News/Local/2015-05-13/article-4146106/English-test-keeps-doctor-from-taking-position-on-P.E.I./1</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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