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Montreal, May 1, 2007 – As a result of the residency admission process, the Quebec faculties of medicine announce that as of July 2007, they will admit over 630 new residents for postdoctoral [1] training, including about 400 in specialties and nearly 240 in family medicine. This is an increase of about 3% over last year’s admissions to residency, at the same time in the process.

Among these new residency admissions for 2007 are 550 externs who will soon receive degrees from faculties of medicine in Quebec, 23 doctors who graduated outside Quebec and 54 with degrees from outside Canada and the United States (international medical graduates, IMG).

There has been a significant increase in the number of IMG admissions in the regular quota, from 48 to 54, an increase of 12.5% over 2006. Among the 54 IMG resident admissions are 19 family physicians and 35 specialists.

Several residency spaces remain unfilled following the second round in the admission process. In all, there are 87 vacancies in Quebec: 22 in specialties (including 14 in internal medicine) and 65 in family medicine.

Of a total of 640 Quebec graduates who participated in the 2007 residency admission process, 64 Quebec graduates will leave Quebec to continue their postdoctoral training elsewhere in Canada (over 60% of them in specialties). Therefore, 10% of the Quebec graduates will leave the province to continue their postdoctoral training in other provinces. One-third of this attrition will be offset by the arrival in Quebec of 23 non-Quebec graduates who have chosen to continue their postdoctoral medical training in Quebec, mainly in specialties (18 of 27). The result remains negative, however, because the arrival of non-Quebec graduates does not completely offset the departure of the Quebec graduates. The differential is 41.

The other vacancies are attributable to the fact that about twenty of this year’s graduates preferred to defer their residency to a future date and about fifteen other Quebec graduates have been admitted in the United States.

The interest in family medicine among Quebec students has flagged this year after several years of high demand, which obliged the faculties of medicine to develop additional capacity. However, it is too soon to say that this is a downward trend likely to have similar results in the coming years and require changes to the planned increases in family medicine training environments.

The Quebec faculties of medicine note the substantial interest among future Quebec physicians in training in certain specialties. The parties concerned, and especially the students, have pointed out that since the number of spaces available in these specialties is not sufficient in Quebec, these future doctors do not hesitate to leave Quebec in order to achieve their dream of becoming a medical specialist in the specialty of their choice. It may be that by increasing the number of spaces available in these specialties, to meet the wishes of these future doctors, Quebec may be more competitive compared to other Canadian provinces and that the retention rate for Quebec graduates may be higher, to the greater benefit of the Quebec public.

Note also that the admission process was conducted, in large part, at the height of the medical specialists’ pressure tactics last November and December, and that the strained atmosphere during that time may have influenced the choice of some students.

Dr. Réjean Hébert, Chair of the Conference of Deans of the Faculties of Medicine in Quebec, will answer questions about this on Wednesday, May 2, 2007, from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. He can be reached at 1-819-564-5201.

For information:
Michel Giguère
CREPUQ 514 288-8524 (extension 208)

[1] In the regular quota.