Record number of residents choose family medicine in Quebec

An emergency room physician looks at a document while treating patients in the emergency room of Humber River Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, Toronto, Tuesday, January 25, 2022. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

Slowly but surely, Quebec is attracting more and more family medicine students.

Of the 923 future residents who were matched in the regular contingent, more than half chose family medicine from among the 60 or so specialties offered in Quebec, according to the findings of data published on Thursday by the Canadian Resident Matching Service.

Better known by its acronym CaRMS, the data show that 484 future doctors chose family medicine in Quebec, 26 more than last year.

However, this remains the specialty with the highest number of vacancies. Despite the progress made, Quebec is still the province that is having the most difficulty filling vacancies for training family doctors.

At the end of the second round of CaRMS, 118 positions remained vacant across Canada. Of these, 94 were in family medicine, including 69 in Quebec.

The Fédération des médecins résidents du Québec (FMRQ) is nevertheless pleased with the increase in family medicine. It points out that “the family medicine residency positions that were not filled are a reality that was anticipated when the number of positions offered was determined.”

The federation said that maintaining a higher supply of positions in family medicine means that there are more doctors on the front line.

The regions have the upper hand

Quebec’s faculties of medicine note a number of positive aspects in the results, in particular the fact that there is an increased presence in the regions. This year, 154 future doctors chose to do their residency outside the major urban centres.

“This is the largest cohort of future family doctors ever trained in Quebec, and a significant milestone in meeting the growing need for primary care, particularly in regions where there is a shortage of services,” said Quebec’s four faculties of medicine (Université Laval, McGill University, Université de Montréal and Université de Sherbrooke) in a press release issued on Thursday.

In an attempt to attract new recruits to family medicine, the faculties have introduced a number of measures in recent years, including increasing exposure to the specialty during university and expanding mentoring opportunities.

In addition, to deal with the shortage of doctors, the government decided in 2022 to increase the number of medical students throughout Quebec. The faculties say they will need the government’s support to accommodate the increased cohorts (expected from 2028).

The president of the FMRQ, Dr. Ghassen Soufi, is optimistic about the future.

“While we await the full effect of these concrete solutions in terms of increased medical admissions, we must continue to find ways to share the insufficient number of new doctors fairly among the various medical specialties and across Quebec, but we are getting very close to the time when we will have an optimal number of residency graduates entering independent practice,” he said in a written statement.

For his part, Dominique Dorion, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke and President of the Conférence des doyens des facultés de médecine des universités du Québec, believes that the results are very encouraging.

“They demonstrate not only the sustained interest in family medicine, but also the success of our concerted efforts to raise the profile of this essential specialty. We are particularly proud to see a strong presence in the regions, an objective that we are pursuing with conviction,” he said in a press release.

Residents will begin their postgraduate training in Quebec on July 1. Across Canada, a total of 3,873 positions were filled at the end of the matching process, representing 97.6 per cent of all positions offered. This is the highest number of positions filled ever.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 21, 2025.

Katrine Desautels, The Canadian Press

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