Northumberland County Council Approves Call to Streamline Doctor Process

In City Hall

By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland

Northumberland County Council has voted support for Brighton’s call for the province to streamline governing legislation for physicians in Ontario in order to get qualifying immigrant doctors practicing at a time when medical personnel are in shorter supply.

The call has also come from the Township of Huron Shores.

The original resolution pointed out the difficulty of attracting primary health-care providers to smaller communities, and pointed out that the province had come up with a program to attract nurses to under-served areas of Ontario.

“At the end of the day, we have discovered we have a couple of guests from Ukraine in our community, who are doctors and who will be looking to stay if they can actually practice.”

They are internationally trained doctors, Ostrander pointed out, and have practiced in Europe. In spite of that, “they would have to go through a rigourous process, and we all know the rigourous process for foreign-trained doctors.”

“We are just asking the government of Ontario to look closely at different processes so we can streamline doctors a little more quickly,” Ostrander said.

Measures in the Brighton resolution include looking at the requirement for Canadian experience when all other requirements are met and implementing Practice Ready Assessment programs similar to those already used in seven other provinces.

County council’s motion of support called for a copy to be sent to the West Northumberland Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee. Though Brighton and Trent Hills are the only municipalities not covered by the group, the idea was to keep them in the loop.

Cecilia Nasmith
Author: Cecilia Nasmith

Join Our Newsletter!

Want to keep up to date on news and events in Northumberland? Subscribe to newsletter!

You may also read!

Video – Cobourg Mayor Announces Members of the Community Led Task Force

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVNT_uGYchI Mayor Lucas Cleveland and Consultant David Dexter hosted a media briefing on September 10, 2025, to share an update

Read More...

Upcoming D’Arcy Street Road Closure Due to Rail Construction

D’Arcy Street Closed from Kerr St. East to Spencer St. East September 14-19 The Town of Cobourg Roads Department would

Read More...

Upcoming Overnight Road Closure on King Street West for Culvert Replacement

The Town of Cobourg Public Works and Engineering Division would like to advise the community that due to the

Read More...

Mobile Sliding Menu