Recruiters look to draw U.S. family doctors to Hamilton area to address shortage | CBC News (2025)

Samantha Beattie · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 19, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: April 19

Hamilton's health-care network is ramping up its search forfamily physicians fromthe United States, who may be unhappy with President Donald Trump's government, and are up for moving toCanada.

Brad van den Heuvel, director of physician recruitment with the Greater Hamilton Health Network (GHHN), said staff willbe attending more family physician recruitment conferences in the U.S. this year than last and forthe first time have begun advertising on Americanjob boards.

"The hope is they come and stay in the long term," he told CBC Hamilton this week.

GHHN is an Ontario Health Team thatorganizes and delivers health-care services in Hamilton, HaldimandCountyand Niagara Region'snorthwest. One of its roles is to recruit family doctors in Canadaand internationallyto fill the shortage inHamilton and Haldimand.

Hamilton needs about 38 more family doctors to meet its population needs, while Haldimand needs 14 to 15more, van der Heuvel said.

GHHN has seen a "slight uptick" in interest from doctors south of the border since Trump won the presidential election last fall, van den Heuveladded.

Five American physicians reached out directly to GHHN since November asking about opportunities, he said. Four were specialists, who GHHN connected to local hospitals,and one was a family doctor.

Brain drain to brain gain

Now is the time "to turn U.S. 'brain drain' intoCanadian 'brain gain,'" Canadian Medical Association (CMA) president Dr. Joss Reimer said in a statement last week.

"Canada must act quickly to attract the American medical and scientific professionals who no longer feel valued in Trump's United States with its mass layoffs and the elimination of health programs and research positions," she said.

In recent months, the Trump administration has overseen large cuts and layoffs at federal health agenciesincluding the Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Reimer urged the Canadian government to make it easier for foreign-trained health professionals to work in Canada.

"Canada has a unique opportunity in this moment to take advantage of this brain gain to become a scientific and medical powerhouse," Reimer said.

More Canadians who went to medical school in the U.S. could be interested in moving back than before Trump, or American doctors with Canadian spouses, said van den Heuvel.

But it won't be untilGHHN attends American eventslater this year that it will know the true number of people willing to relocate, he said.

One barrier to attracting doctors from the U.S. is pay, van den Heuvel said. Physicians simply don't make as much money in Ontario's public health-care system compared tothe Americanprivate system.

Van den Heuvelis also concerned that doctors recruited from the U.S. may move back whenthe political climatechanges.

"Then we'll be in another problem where you have all these patients losing a doctor and then it's really hard to fill all those vacancies," he said.

"Yes, it is a good time to focus on the recruitment of American physicians particularly because their loss is our gain," said van den Heuvel. "But with limited staff and limited budget, we can't give up on recruiting Canadian-trained physicians."

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