The one who didn't get away: Dal-trained med grad says residency rules have to change

A day after hearing from a Dalhousie-trained physician who says she was forced to look to Boston for her residency, a classmate who was successful in staying says the rules have to change.

Dr. Abhinaya Yeddala, or Abhi to her friends, is originally from India, and started her med school training in the International Medical University (IMU) in Malaysia.

She graduated with classmate Dr. Taha Khan in 2019.

While Khan wound-up heading south, Yeddala stuck it out in Nova Scotia - an option that only opened up to her after she obtained permanent residency status.

Without a job, getting it was a struggle - even if you're a trained doctor in a province that's desperate for them.

"I was ready to go anywhere at that point. I really wanted to be a doctor," said Yeddala Wednesday.

"I wanted to be a doctor in Nova Scotia and wanted to stay back here, so my first choice was always Nova Scotia and then New Brunswick."

In the end, Yeddala took on some research work for a couple of years before getting her permanent residency status and her first medical residency in Inverness, N.S.

"I should say that I was very close to leaving because I was applying for the States and I was applying to the U.K., if this didn't work out this year for me," she said.

Now, she's in New Glasgow, N.S., but she and her husband consider Halifax home - especially with a baby on the way.

If all of this seems complicated, it is.

After CTV News flagged the issue Tuesday, Nova Scotia's Office of Healthcare Recruitment responded with an emailed statement, saying Ottawa "currently requires international students training to become a doctor to have their permanent resident status to be matched with a residency opportunity in Nova Scotia. We know there is high demand for residency opportunities in this province, including Nova Scotian students studying at Dalhousie University. But the province is reaching out to find out more about this situation."

"We should do more to make it easier for people like her to stay," said Sean Fraser, Canada's minister of Immigration, Refugees & Citizenship, on Tuesday.

"This particular rule isn't the result of a particular federal piece of legislation but a practice baked into the national matching residency program, I understand."

"If they really wanted to, they could drop the rule wanting the PR [permanent residency]," said Yeddala. "So, CaRMS [the Canadian Residency Matching Service] has the authority to say, 'It's OK, as long as you have a work permit and a valid immigration status, you can work here.'"

Whether there's enough residency seats is another matter entirely, but Yeddala says the current rules are shutting too many out.

"I know multiple international graduates who left Nova Scotia after trying for multiple years because they don't have their entire life to dedicate just to get into residency," she said.

"There's so many international medical graduates who are not in the same boat as me. They go through extensive training, they're very well trained doctors in other countries, but when they come here, they have to go through a whole new process, and there's no guarantee they'll actually get matched. It's not an easy process in Canada. We make it so hard for international doctors who actually want to work here."