Marina Lousararian worked in her home country of Argentina as a cardiologist.
Now in B.C. since mid-2021, she cleans schools to make money and is studying hospitality management.
Foreign-trained medical specialists are expressing frustration over how difficult it is to practice in B.C. if they are certified in other countries.
“I graduated as a medical doctor in 2010 from the University of Córdoba,” Lousararian told Global News. “It’s a worldwide recognized university. After that, I started training in cardiology. I became an adult cardiologist in 2016, recognized by the Medical Council of my city, which is Córdoba, and my training was in a military hospital that belongs to the Argentinian Air Force.”
Lousararian passed all her exams to become a doctor and worked for seven years in Argentina.
She said in the last few years there she had three jobs. “I worked for the Argentinian Air Force, and then I worked for another hospital, which is called Privado, and I had my private practice where I performed complementary diagnostic methods for cardiovascular disease like treadmill tests and ambulatory monitoring of blood pressure – studies like that.”
Lousararian said she knew the process of becoming certified in Canada as a cardiologist would be a difficult one as she had heard many stories about other doctors’ experiences.
“I also knew that my medical degree could be recognized here, but not my specialty. So even though I tried to start the process, I found some barriers.”
She said she registered at the Medical Council of Canada while studying hospitality management and she had to pay a fee to do that.
She was then required to upload all of her certifications, which required a fee of $800 – that was only the beginning of a process that is too expensive.
“After that is when the process starts because to get my certification, or at least to see if I am eligible, I need to take between three or four exams,” she said. “Of course, I need to prove my knowledge and my language proficiency. I know I have to do that, but the process could cost me over $10,000. And of course, I cannot afford that right now.”
Lousararian said that while her medical degree can be approved in Canada, her specialty cannot because the Medical Council of Canada does not consider Argentina a valid training centre.
She said other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are approved but many are not.
“I wasn’t going to be able to practice as a cardiologist here because my postgraduate training was not valid,” Lousararian added.
“So I asked if they could at least consider me as a doctor. It’s not a problem about trying to prove my knowledge because I know I have to prove my knowledge and I know I have to study a lot because this is medicine. We are not talking about things. We are talking about people. And we are willing to prove that we have the knowledge, we have the experience, and we can study as much as we have to study to prove that. But we need the training.”
Last November, the B.C. government announced it is expanding a program that helps internationally educated doctors get licences in B.C.
This was a move to try and address the dire lack of family doctors within the province.
“The pandemic has exposed underlying challenges and added new strains to our public health-care system, and too many British Columbians are struggling to find a family doctor,” said B.C. Premier David Eby at the time.
“Meanwhile, family doctors trained outside of Canada aren’t able to practise family medicine because they lack a pathway to be licensed here.”
Lousararian said she is willing to take the appropriate training but the program announced last year is geared towards family doctors, which she is not.
“We know that people need specialists here also because they can be waiting for months to get an appointment with a specialist. And some health issues can wait,” she said. “Others cannot wait, especially in my specialty. So it’s really hard and really difficult to see that we are not considered in those programs and patients end up going into an emergency room or maybe they go again to their family doctors, which are already exhausted or retiring because they cannot reach an appointment with a specialist.”
She wants to practice medicine and if that meant changing her specialty, she would do that. But the cost right now is too high.
She would have to take four exams, which she was told would cost $7,500. Then she would have to go through the eligibility process which would cost $4,500 according to the Medical Council of Canada.
“I couldn’t even upload my certification because I am a newcomer, I have to pay my college fees, the rent, and especially when you have kids, you have more expenses. It’s impossible for me to pay $800 just to upload my certifications. I mean, it’s impossible for me today.”
Lousararian said the whole process has left her with mixed feelings.
“It’s really sad and it’s really frustrating because we know that we can provide a lot of help through our knowledge, through our experience. We can help satisfy the actual health-care needs, but we are still not being considered for that.”
Loicel Aguero is in a similar situation.
He is a trained physician with a specialty in internal medicine.
But he was educated in Venezuela and did his residency in Caracas. He then worked as an internal medicine physician from 2011 until he left to come to Canada four years ago.
Internal medicine physicians treat and diagnose people with internal, complex conditions or problems and then they can also refer patients to a specialist, such as a cardiologist or a gastroenterologist
“I can treat cirrhosis, cirrhosis hepatic,” Aguero said. “Any kind of pneumonia. I can treat hypertension.”
He said he and his wife left Venezuela due to political upheaval and economic uncertainty.
Since coming to Canada he has been a cleaner, construction worker and unit clerk and is currently a perioperative unit assistant at Richmond Hospital, only starting in January.
He sets up the operating rooms before surgeries.
Aguero wants to become a certified doctor in Canada, but he too is facing financial barriers.
“I think I would need around $10,000 to cover all the things. For example, the MCCQE1 test, I can take it here in British Columbia, and it’s about $1,500 for taking the test.”
Another test he would need costs around $3,500, he said, and it is not even available in B.C. He would have to travel to another province.
“The other thing is you need to have time to prepare yourself for those ones because if you fail the first one, you can repeat that test, but you have to pay it again. But if you pass the test with a lower score, you’re not able to continue your way. You don’t have another opportunity to take again that test.”
Aguero said he gets frustrated not being able to have an opportunity to practice medicine in Canada.
He would like to see the government give people from other countries the chance and financial help to become certified in Canada.
“So I think that the government should open courses or programs for international medical graduates to help us. To teach us how the Canadian health-care system works.”
For now, Aguero said he will continue to try to seek accreditation as a doctor in Canada.
“If the door is open, I will enter. I will do it.”
– with files from Global News’ Paul Johnson