Recruiters say surge in U.S. doctors looking to move to Canada since Trump election

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HALIFAX — Recruiters say there’s been a surge of interest from American doctors considering moving to Canada since the election of U.S. president Donald Trump in November.

Katrina Philopoulos, recruitment director for Nova Scotia Health, says 27 American doctors are in serious negotiations to move, which to date has resulted in one person being hired and a second who is expected to move to the province next year.

Philopoulos says her agency’s message to doctors isn’t overtly political and is aimed at anyone “ready to make the change” after Trump’s victory.

Manitoba’s health minister, Uzoma Asagwara, says the province is talking to about 12 American physicians, and has hosted webinars for about 50 nurses in the U.S.

Asagwara says recruiters in Manitoba, which has one of the country’s lowest number of physicians per capita, are going to intensify their U.S. efforts in the coming weeks.

Dr. Rohini Patel says her firm — CanAm Physician Recruiters _ has added 347 new U.S. physicians to its network, including 141 in the past three months, roughly double the number over the same period the year before.

She says the doctors she’s interviewed are not merely inquiring but are actively interested in the move, adding they are “not picky” about what region of the country they might practise in.

Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says the growing interest is linked to frustration of U.S. doctors with private insurers, and discontent from obstetricians and family doctors worried about “political interference” in their practices.

Reimer says a rise in the number of U.S. physicians moving to Canada could become part of the solution to addressing what Health Canada estimates is a shortfall of about 23,000 family physicians in the country.