Denying young doctor’s dream is soul-crushing

Re Haunting epitaph: ‘What good is a doctor who cannot practise?,’ June 17 This story broke my heart. The sacrifices Robert Chu made to get into medical school and then the study and determination to graduate were monumental. At the final stage, eight years later and hundreds of thousands in debt, to be denied your dream is soul crushing. I would urge both sides to come up with a solution in the new Ontario Medical Association agreement with the government, before any talk of finances. Dr. Doug Hepburn, Oshawa There is a simple solution to the Ontario’s perceived oversupply of doctors, which is to decrease the number of students admitted to medical school. A student’s ambitions should not be thwarted after enduring the academic and financial costs of medical school. The majority of successful medical school candidates are the best of their generation. The number of residency positions should match the number of medical students. Dr. Gail Hirano, Mississauga The province increased medical school spots without increasing residency spots. Not surprisingly, 7 per cent of our graduating class went unmatched initially. Despite working tirelessly and excelling for three years in medical school, Robert was viewed as a failure and a pariah by his own medical community. Applications from unmatched students are read with extreme suspicion. Robert wrote every program that rejected him for feedback. Two replied. Robert’s death is no mystery. He was abandoned by the very institutions that invested in him. Laurence Batmazian, Toronto It’s a fiasco for universities to increase enrolment with no associated increase in residency spots. The number of residency spots needs to directly correlate to medstudent spots. Complicating the issue is that international medical school graduates are slowly chipping away at residency positions. Universities should take some responsibility for the job prospects of their graduates. Dr. Philip Kubara, Nelson, B.C.