HALIFAX -- The body that regulates Nova Scotia doctors says it will not change its standards for foreign-trained family physicians despite a shortage in many parts of the province.

"Our responsibility is to only license physicians who can practice competently," Dr. Gus Grant, CEO of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, said in an interview Friday. "We have a very slim margin for error."

Grant says Dr. Mohsen Yavari's track record in his Glace Bay practice has proven him to be a capable family physician.

But, Grant says, the college is standing by its decision this month to revoke his medical licence for distorting his qualifications.

"The injustice of denying licence to someone who may be able to practice competently is far less damaging that the risk of licensing physicians who cannot," Grant said.

The college says the Iranian-born Yavari did not disclose six years of experience in Dubai as an emergency medicine specialist when he applied to a program recruiting family doctors for rural areas.

"There can be no doubt the dishonesty was strategic and wilful," a college investigations committee wrote in its decision, dated July 7.

"Dr. Yavari has been rewarded already for an effective and strategic misrepresentation. Will this invite other such applications? Were other appropriately qualified candidates disadvantaged by Dr. Yavari's dishonesty?"

Grant says Yavari's licence was revoked in part due to the deception, but also because he was under-qualified and lacked the necessary experience in family medicine.

"What's different now is that the province has had the opportunity to assess Dr. Yavari in practice, although inappropriately in practice, has had the chance to see how he performs as a practising family physician," he said.

He says Yavari will be eligible after a waiting period to seek a return to family medicine because he has proven he is a competent practitioner.

Last August, the college revoked the licence of a foreign-trained doctor in Parrsboro, N.S., after he was also caught lying on his application under the same program. Dr. Jalal Baghaee had hid his training and experience in pediatric medicine.

Grant says Baghaee reapplied for his licence and has returned to his practice.