N.S. launches international medical graduate centre to certify more foreign doctors

Nova Scotia is creating an international medical graduate assessment centre to recruit and fast-track more internationally-trained physicians to work in the province and address the doctor shortage.

Premier Tim Houston made the announcement in Halifax Tuesday morning. He said, to start, four international medical graduates will provide medical care for 2,500 patients at the assessment centre.

“We have health-care professionals like doctors who want to make Nova Scotia their home, and we have the opportunities to help them do what they do best, that’s provide care for patients,” said Houston.

"We've all heard too many stories about a friend or neighbour or Nova Scotian who went to medical school away and faced nearly insurmountable challenges in coming back home to work."

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Two Nova Scotia physicians will supervise the international graduates and assess them through a 12-week assessment program at the centre.

The medical graduate centre will eventually expand to include five physician-led teams of up to three international medical graduates each, providing care for up to 6,400 patients.

"When you do something first of its kind it takes courage to support the idea and I appreciate the support we've received from government," said Dr. Gus Grant, registrar and CEO of the College of the Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia.

International graduates will have to pass the 12-week assessment program and sign a three-year service agreement with the province before being issued a licence.

"The assessment we're doing is not time-based, it's competency based, such that outliers, be they positive outliers or negative outliers, will be quickly moved through the program," said Grant. 

It’s expected the new program will issue more licences than the former Dalhousie University Practice Ready Program, which has issued 39 licences since 2019.

"When fully up and running, we hope to see about 45 internationally-trained physicians licenced here in Nova Scotia every year," said Houston.

The new medical graduate assessment centre is a partnership between the Province of Nova Scotia, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia and the Medical Council of Canada.

The new International Medical Graduate Centre is scheduled to open in January 2025 at a new clinic space at the Halifax Shopping Centre.

The province says 28 per cent of new physicians who started practising in Nova Scotia last year were recruited internationally.

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.