A record number of this year’s University of B.C. medical graduates have chosen family medicine for their postgraduate training.
And the fact that 107 soon-to-graduate new doctors have been placed in family medicine programs is good news for B.C. residents searching for a family physician, says executive associate dean Dr. David Snadden.
He noted that more than one-third of all residency positions available this year have been filled by graduates wanting to be family doctors.
As they near graduation, graduates of medical schools across the country rank their preferences and are then matched to available postgraduate training positions.
In the first of two rounds at UBC, 95 per cent (245 students) accepted positions after being matched to a program of their choice in 29 different medical specialties or sub-specialties.
UBC creates residency training positions according to the most urgent needs in communities. The largest number of such positions are in family medicine (40 per cent), internal medicine (18 per cent) and pediatrics (18 per cent), all areas deemed priorities by government, health authorities and UBC.
Half the family medicine doctors will train on Vancouver Island and in northern B.C.
Snadden said it’s important to train residents in rural and more remote areas because “medical trainees are more likely to practise in the communities they trained in.”
Just over half of the residents B.C. has accepted were educated at UBC. Snadden said he thinks there are benefits for graduates who seek specialty training elsewhere, to gain different perspectives. “Many of those who go away eventually return,” he noted.
In a second round of the matching process, to be held next month, UBC will be looking to fill 16 remaining spots, including five in pathology, four in psychiatry, and two in cardiac surgery.
Psychiatry has become increasingly unpopular as many of the 17 medical schools across the country have unfilled residency positions in that specialty. Snadden said it’s a disturbing trend that needs to be addressed.
“Mental health is recognized more and more as a priority and it’s troubling to everyone that it’s not a popular choice,” he said.
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