Know Better, Do Better / The Match

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6GdfQOMyKY

I am going to begin this blog by starting with the “bottom line”.  DO NOT match non-US citizens into residency slots until all US doctor graduates have matched into a residency.  It is as simple as that.  Get your own “house” in order first, then be generous with your excess.

 We DO have a responsibility as members of the human race to care for the well-being of others, namely, world-wide healthcare.  However, the licensing rules for the practice of Medicine in the US require the completion of a US RESIDENCY.  So first we owe the right to complete their training to our OWN graduated US DOCTORS, before offering residency slots to non-US citizens.  That is the way the “World” works.  Hurdles abound to protect the rights of the citizens of each country.  Their citizens’ right to work is met before hiring foreigners. 

Our country once welcomed non-citizen doctors to fill the gaps in our doctor shortages.  Since the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 ironically created an “imbalance” between the number of medical school graduates and residency slots, that situation has changed.  I would suggest an immediate freeze on matching non-citizens into our inadequate supply of residency slots, until this shortfall has been corrected.

Reporter Tony Dokoupil of CBS News presented a story about  foreign doctor graduates from President Trump’s 7 travel ban countries.  They were applying for residency slots in the US (1).  It turns out more than 1,000 doctors from these 7 countries ALONE were applying through the NRMP for the residency match on March 17, 2017 (does not include applicants from other foreign countries).  There are currently 15,000 doctor graduates from these SAME 7 countries ALREADY WORKING in US residencies today! 

Mr. Dokoupil interviewed the Dean of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Dr. Jerry Kruse, about these foreign applicants.  Dr. Kruse was anxious to help these doctors match, in spite of the travel ban, in hopes they would someday practice in the rural underserved areas of Southern Illinois.  Dr. Michael Gannon, president of the AMA, weighed in on this situation as well.  This is the misinformation that galls me!!!!  I “know” of 8,640 doctor graduates, 42% of which are US citizens, who would have loved to work in Southern Illinois.  They were the UNLUCKY doctor graduates who did NOT match into a residency on Match Day, March 18, 2016!!!  They cannot get a license without a US residency.

I am NOT saying “DO NOT MATCH FOREIGN MEDICAL GRADUATES”.  I am saying, “Match US citizen graduates from both US and Foreign Medical schools FIRST, and then match non-citizens second.  So now we KNOW BETTER, let’s do better…

(1) http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-travel-ban-impact-on-international-doctors-american-health-system

http://nomatchmds.blogspot.com/