CFPC pausing plan to extend residencies for family doctors to three years

The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) is pausing its plan after physicians from across the country voted overwhelmingly against the idea. The CFPC intended to increase the residency training period for family doctors in Canada to three years from two, beginning no earlier than 2027. The longer residency was supposed to better prepare graduates for the increasingly complex landscape of family medicine but it drew criticism from political leaders and front-line care providers who feared it would exacerbate Canada’s primary-care crisis. Critics argued a longer residency period risked turning more future doctors off of family medicine as a career. Canada’s two-year residency for family doctors is among the shortest in the world.