Backgrounder
December 18, 2006
HEALTHFORCEONTARIO STRATEGY
The McGuinty government’s HealthForceOntario is an innovative health human resources strategy to attract and retain the best health care professionals to Ontario, improving access for patients to quality health care. The strategy includes:
HealthForceOntario.ca
HealthForceOntario.ca is the most comprehensive health professional job recruitment site in North America.
A health care professional can use HealthForceOntario.ca to find job information, assess his or her qualifications and learn more about the various places to live and work in the province. The site:
- Lists career opportunities for doctors and nurses (through the HFOJobs portal) and also provides profiles on the communities where jobs are located (job opportunities for other health care professionals will be added soon)
- Showcases living in Ontario, highlighting the diversity of the province that includes big city excitement and open-country tranquility
- Offers video testimonials from health professionals already practising in the province
- Outlines educational requirements for students interested in a career in health
- Provides information to health care employers that promotes the advantages of using the website
HealthForceOntario Recruitment Centre
The work of the Centre includes:
- An extensive and comprehensive campaign to repatriate the estimated 3,000 physicians who are registered to practice in Ontario but who currently reside out of the province
- Enhanced coordination of existing recruitment efforts across the province and creation of new community partnerships
- Active participation in strategically selected health professional conferences
- Strategic marketing and advertising to target groups of health professionals, e.g., surplus anaesthetists in the U.K., Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender physicians in the United States
- The creation of an individualized/personalized support service for prospective health professionals to help them navigate the systems associated with recruitment, e.g., registration with the regulatory college, job and community placement, spousal/partner support
- Development and implementation of an ethical recruitment framework that will guide the activities of the Centre
Access Centre for Internationally Educated Health Professionals – Ryerson University, 285 Victoria Street, 7th Floor
Internationally educated health professionals will have access to the following services:
- Contact information and referrals to the regulatory body in the appropriate field of expertise
- Links to education and assessment programs to provide timely access to the best services available, as close to home as possible
- Information about standards for professional qualifications
- Information about licensing and registration processes
- Information and referrals for retraining
- Information about alternative professional avenues to complement skills
- Ongoing counselling and support, to assist them in finding the most effective path to professional practice
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Contacts:
David Spencer, Minister’s Office, (416) 327-4320
A.G. Klei, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, (416) 314-6197
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