Despite missed target, Ontario cities pin hopes on program for foreign-trained doctors [Video]

More than two dozen internationally-trained family doctors are now treating patients in Ontario as part of an expedited licensing program that missed its initial target for 2024.

Despite the slower-than-expected uptake in the beginning of the Practice Ready Ontario program, the province now says it’s aiming to bring 100 foreign-trained physicians to northern and rural areas by the end of the year.

The Ontario government says the initial target of licensing 50 internationally-trained doctors by the end of 2024 was not met but that has now been rolled into the new target of 100 primary care doctors.

Touchstone Institute, a non-profit organization that has partnered with the Ontario government and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, said the first cohort of 28 licensed physicians is now working under three-year contracts in high-need communities that include Sudbury, Goderich and Huntsville.

The organization said a total of 191 internationally-trained doctors initially applied for the program when it …