Quebec medical students question future as family medicine residencies remain unoccupied

Quebec medical students say it’s no longer about just picking the right specialty or program - it’s also about politics and stability.

At McGill University in Montreal, medical student Adam Mouncef says a shift is happening among his classmates.

“There are people who are starting to look elsewhere because of the ambiguity, the uncertainty,” he said. “They’re starting to look at matching in different provinces, different regions, despite having that love and profound attachment for Quebec and those roots.”

Mouncef, who is also the vice-president of government affairs of the Medical Students’ Society of McGill University, says it’s no longer just about picking the right specialty or program - it’s also about politics and stability.

“Now, students are starting to look at the electoral cycle and the relationships between physicians and the government,” he said.

Quebec currently has the highest number of unoccupied family medicine residencies - more than the rest of Canada combined - at 146 after the first round.

Family doctor Michael Kalin laments that the tone of recent debates is taking a toll.

“That’s because of years of hostility towards family medicine,” he said. “This has rubbed off on the new graduates, and they are afraid to go into a profession which has been under siege by the government for so long.”

The timing of the conflict is also less than ideal, with 22 per cent of Quebec family doctors currently over 60 and nearing retirement.

“I’m terrified because we don’t have young blood coming into family medicine,” said Kalin. “On the other hand, I’m terrified because I don’t know if the government even sees family medicine in the future of primary care.”

Students agree that the political climate has been hard to ignore, leaving some questioning their future in the system.

“We’ve been working so hard in the last few years to get there, and suddenly we didn’t know what our future would be like,” said Rosalie Kègle, a medical student at the Université de Sherbrooke. “We feel powerless not to be able to help our patients.”

She argues that if more is expected of family doctors, there should be increased support, including better access to specialists and resources.

Mouncef adds that what’s at stake goes beyond numbers.

Rather, he says it’s about the quality of care.

“When a francophone-trained physician or a French-speaking student leaves Quebec, that loss is hard to replace because language-concordant care is not replaceable,” he said.

From students to veteran doctors, they say all they want is a seat at the table to help shape the system and protect access for patients who depend on them.