The reasons why Quebec-trained physicians leave the province
are basically linked to the conditions in which they practice
medicine, including all aspects of their compensation, according
to Henriette Bilodeau, a researcher in the Inderdisciplinary
Health Research Group in the Université de Montréal
Faculty of Medicine. “It is important to realize that
the average income of Québec physicians is currently
the lowest in Canada, even though it was one of the highest
in the early 1970s,” the researcher notes.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information indicates
that between 1996 and 2000 some 550 physicians left Quebec
to practice in another province or abroad, mainly in the
US. In the same period, the province posted a negative balance
of –371 for interprovincial migration. Since other
provinces, such as Ontario and British Columbia, show largely
positive interprovincial migration balances (+331 and +609),
Mrs. Bilodeau’s team wondered what was causing Québec
physicians to pull up stakes and leave.
A survey of 1654 physicians was conducted. According to
The emigration of Québec physicians: reasons
for departure and return, 231 physicians moved their
practices to other provinces; 267 others emigrated to the
United States; 110 returned home after a fairly long stay
in the United States or elsewhere in Canada; lastly, 1046
had always worked in Quebec.
The survey reports that physicians who left Quebec did so
above all for professional and contextual reasons, 52.3%
citing income as their main reason, 41.6% the desire to
work in a stimulating environment, and more than a third
(35.2%) the availability of professional resources needed
for patient care. As regards contextual reasons, 55.9% of
respondents attributed their departure to the political
climate in Quebec, 47.8% claimed tax levels were responsible,
while 32.7% of physicians mentioned language policy. It
should be mentioned that emigrating physicians in this study
were surveyed over a period of 15 years.
In examining the data, the researchers noted that physicians
who left Quebec were preponderantly English-speaking. “Forty-seven
percent of physicians who leave are English-speaking, whereas
Anglophones represent only 5% of physicians in Quebec,”
indicates Mrs. Bilodeau. However, nearly as many French-speaking
physicians (44%) as English-speaking physicians (47%) leave
Quebec. “Nevertheless, it’s a substantial difference,”
the researcher emphasizes. It is significant that 57% of
the physicians who emigrate to the United States or other
provinces are graduates of McGill University, “even
though this university trains only a third of the graduates
per year on average.” Lastly, nearly three specialists
go to work in another province and or across the US border
for every general practitioner who leaves.
Researcher: Henriette Bilodeau
Telephone: (514) 987-3000, extension 8390.
Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire en santé:
(514) 343-6185
Funding: National Health Research and Development Program
(Health Canada)
