Saudi doctors get brief grace period to remain in Canada

TORONTO — Canadian health authorities said 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 quickly leave the country due to Canada’s criticism of the ultraconservative kingdom’s arrest of women’s right 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 Sept. 1, said Dr. Salvatore Spadafora, the vice dean of post-MD education at the University of Toronto’s faculty of medicine.

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.

While the Saudi government says the students, whose education it is paying for, can now study in other nations, the change will dramatically alter the future for many.

Some of the residents and doctors are entering their final and fifth year of their programs and the change will derail some careers, Spadafora said.

The Saudi state airline also said in a statement on its official Twitter account that it would suspend all flights to Toronto starting Monday, Aug. 13.