Originally Posted by Bill Henry of The Sun Times

Although he'll be a doctor on graduation, he can't actually practise medicine until he chooses a specialty and completes a hospital residency in conjunction with an Ontario medical school - he wants a three-year combined residency in both family and emergency medicine. "I want to practise family medicine in Owen Sound. This is where we want to end up," [he] said.

But it's not that simple.

International medical graduates are not as likely to be accepted for a residency without an additional Medical Council of Canada examination and an evaluation through the Centre for the Evaluation of Health Professionals Educated Abroad, a new organization formed in 2007.

Neither can be completed until [he] graduates, he said.

By that time next year's placements will likely be filled, by both Ontario medical graduates who don't need the extra evaluation and by foreign medical grads who have completed the additional testing and evaluation after waiting an additional year since graduating.

"They've told me that basically my chance of getting it isn't very good this year," [he] said.