An internationally trained doctor in Regina is leaving Canada after seven years of being unable to secure his medical licence to practise.
Ken Katas arrived in Canada with his family in 2015 after he heard there was a need for doctors.
“I thought it was a good opportunity for me to continue my medical practice in Canada,” said Katas. “I had high hopes.”
That hope was met with disappointment. He said he took the medical qualifying exam three times, yet he was unable to pass. He said he is not alone.
“They are many people like me, and many people that have also passed the qualifying exam, and yet they don’t have a placement,” Katas said.
A placement in the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment (SIPPA) ensures that internationally trained physicians possess adequate clinical skills and knowledge to practice medicine in Saskatchewan.
The SIPPA medical director stated there are more applicants than available places.
“Our assessment is a 12-week workplace, field assessment,” said Jon Witt. “The assessment is handled by the same physicians providing patient care in rural Saskatchewan, in the ER departments, clinics environment and in the hospitals. So, we are asking them to not only work hard, but also to do this assessment on top of training medical students and residents.”
The SIPPA program accepted 45 physicians out of 77 applicants in 2022 and the program is offered three times a year. With these few numbers, more internationally trained doctors wait for years while some never get called.
Katas said at one time, eight doctors including himself wrote the qualifying exams when six of them passed but none of them got a placement in SIPPA.
“Now they have all moved to (the) United Kingdom and Australia to practice,” Katas said.
Among other criteria, one that hinders many is the currency of practice. Katas insisted that those rules are costing the country manpower.
No matter how urgently Canada needs Doctors, Witt believes things must be done properly and safely.
“We need to do it in a way that is safe, patients and the people of Canada expect that their doctor is knowledgeable skilled and understands how the system works,” Witt said.
Katas has found an alternative pathway and will be moving to the United States in three weeks.
“I went to Harvard to do a course on clinical research,” he said. I am already Harvard-certified and so I’m also moving out to California to continue as a research physician in the States.”
Katas said that he is happy about the new life ahead of him.
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