(UTV|COLOMBO) Canadian health authorities said on Wednesday that hundreds of Saudi doctors and residents who make up the largest segment of foreign medical trainees in the country will remain in Canada until the end of the month, giving hospitals a few weeks to cope with the sudden staffing loss caused by a diplomatic spat.
The 800 medical trainees are among more than 15,000 Saudis whose government has ordered them to suddenly leave the country due to Canada’s criticism of the ultraconservative kingdom’s arrest of women’s rights activists. The Saudi Embassy bureau that places the country’s students in Canada convinced the kingdom’s government to let the medical trainees stay until September 1, said Dr Salvatore Spadafora, the vice dean of post-MD education at the University of Toronto’s faculty of medicine.
Saudi Arabia will suspend new trade and investment with Canada after that country’s foreign ministry urged Riyadh to release arrested civil rights activists.
Spadafora oversees 216 of those Saudis in the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network. He said the loss of the trainees will cause disruptions at Canadian hospitals, particularly in some specialized fields, but said it’s too early to fully know the impact. “At the end of the day it’s still 216 people that might not be showing up for work,” he said.
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