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 31
Years Ago
BC forces IMGs into
hinterland
VANCOUVER — BC's College of Physicians is under
fire for its decision to force immigrant doctors to
serve for five years in some of the province's coldest,
most remote regions before they gain the right to practise
freely. The policy came into effect in May last year.
The College's registrar Dr William McClure told the
New York Times that the acute shortage of medical
services in BC's northern settlements made this move
necessary. The Canadian Labour Congress decried the
provincial government's decision to approve this restriction
on worker mobility, arguing that it sets a terrible
precedent. The BC Human Rights Commission issued a similar
condemnation. Before this new rule was adopted, immigrant
doctors were assigned to a remote location until they
completed their licence exams — which typically
took one year. After that they were free to go wherever
they wished.
Source: The New York
Times 29 February 1976
(For more on IMGs,
see "Do we need
a national agency to assess IMG credentials?" on
page 27)
48
Years Ago
Boxing "evil": UK
docs call for ban
LONDON — The editors of The Lancet are calling
for the UK to abolish boxing. "This evil," states their
editorial, "[caused] 64 deaths, including 24 amateurs
in four years ... a prohibitive price to pay for a sport
which makes the brain and its exquisitely sensitive
extensions such as the eye legitimate — in fact,
main — targets." The editors charged that the government
was complicit in this violence because of its decision
to broadcast greater numbers of fights on the state-owned
BBC network. Despite the physicians' hard hitting evidence,
boxing won't likely go down without a fight in the UK.
The sport has a long, storied history in the country.
The first ever heavyweight champion titleholder, James
Figg (born 1659), was British.
Source: The Lancet
5 June 1959
54
Years Ago
"Cancer penicillin"
possible within decade
WASHINGTON — One of the United States' top cancer
experts predicts the disease's days as an unstoppable
killer are numbered. "I believe surely the problem is
now well analysed," proclaimed Dr Cornelius P Rhodes,
scientific director of the Memorial Center for Cancer
and Allied Diseases at a press conference after a meeting
of a special congressional panel on cancer. "Inevitably,
as I see it," he added, "we can look forward to something
like a penicillin for cancer, and I hope within the
next decade." Other doctors on the panel, like Dr John
R Heller, Jr, director of the National Cancer Institute,
were similarly optimistic about one day finding a cure
for cancer, but warned it may take many, many more years.
Source: New York Times
3 October 1953
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