Nova Scotia·NewA new program for assessing internationally trained doctors in Nova Scotia had a slow start, resulting in just five licenses to practise in the first ten months, but a senior government official says it’s ramping up and proving successful.Five doctors have been licensed under N.S. program in the first 10 monthsTaryn Grant · CBC News · Posted: Dec 03, 2025 3:18 PM EST | Last Updated: 10 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.The program launched in February and promised to eventually turn out 45 doctors a year. (David Donnelly/CBC)A new program for assessing internationally trained doctors in Nova Scotia is off to a slow start, yielding just five licensed doctors in the first 10 months, but a senior government official says it’s ramping up and proving successful.“We’re growing, we’re on track,” said Kim Barro, associate deputy minister with the department of health and wellness.The physician assessment centre of excellence, or PACE, opened in February in a clinic in the Halifax Shopping Centre. Internationally trained doctors are assessed by licensed physicians in 12-week cycles and can come out of the program with a licence to practise on their own.Barro said all five people who have come out of the program so far are now practising in primary care.Previously, it took 18 months for internationally trained doctors to be assessed and licenced.Barro said the goal is for the program to assess 45 doctors a year, but it’s far from that goal for 2025. One of the limiting factors has been clinic capacity, she said.“But knowing that we needed to accelerate, we got more space, we got more physicians trained,” she said.Barro said the original clinic has two full-time equivalent physician assessors who can oversee four to six physician candidates at a time. This week, she said the program expanded into a second clinic on Kearney Lake Road with four assessors. Still on the horizon is a purpose-built clinic nearby, said Barro.The program is also slated to expand into two hospitals this winter: Dartmouth General and the Colchester East Hants Health Centre. Rather than primary care, the focus at these sites will be assessing doctors to work as hospitalists.Barro said two physicians assessors are being trained to work at each site.“We have primary care physicians in communities but also we need hospitalists to ensure that we have flow-through … in our smaller community hospitals,” she said.Interim Liberal Leader Derek Mombourquette said he supports the program, but wants it to be more productive.“Ideally you would see more people and I think that raises the question: what else can we do to strengthen the program?” he said.NDP Leader Claudia Chender said she’s worried about retaining the doctors who go through PACE.“Any doctor is good. We traditionally are pretty good at attracting doctors, we’re not that good at keeping them,” she said.MORE TOP STORIES ABOUT THE AUTHORTaryn Grant covers daily news for CBC Nova Scotia, with a particular interest in housing and homelessness, education, and health care. You can email her with tips and feedback at taryn.grant@cbc.ca
New model for licensing international doctors is off to a slow start
