Trudy Carrels: founder, Global Physician Placement
by Jane Harris
When her preschool daughter got sick in 1999, Trudy Carrels’ road trips ended. For 15 years, she’d travelled as a management, marketing and recruitment consultant. But with a local doctor shortage making it difficult to determine the cause of her daughter’s pain, Carrels chose to stay home on the family ranch near Foremost and research the symptoms herself. When the sleuthing indicated autoimmunity issues, specialists in Calgary confirmed the diagnosis. Coincidentally, a medical recruiting firm contacted Carrels soon after, convincing her to use her consulting skills to partner with it to bring foreign doctors to Canada, primarily from South Africa. Tiring of jetting between continents, she eventually left the firm but not the field, establishing Global Physician Placement in 2007 to import South African doctors referred by physicians she’d placed through the previous company. There’s been no shortage of work since. And with the Alberta Medical Association calling for 1,000 new Alberta doctors, the pace isn’t likely to slow.
AV: What prompted you to start a new company without partners?
TC: I took [time] off to focus on my family. Global Physician Placement began from physicians seeking me out by Googling my personal information. After saying no for a year and half, I realized I could no longer refuse health regions, clinics and doctors who needed help. The peace of mind a family has knowing a clinic or hospital will stay open because it has a physician could make a difference in many lives.
What does Global Physician Placement do?
I work directly with physicians and health regions in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland. There are many steps for a foreign physician to seek a successful placement. It can take a few months to over a year for the entire process, which involves [submitting] CVs and documents to [a provincial] College of Physicians and Surgeons for eligibility review. Once a job offer is signed, the immigration process can begin and the physician prepares to write Canadian qualifying exams. I don’t ask for my fee until the physician is placed.
Who pays you?
The health regions.
Is Alberta’s doctor shortage only a rural problem?
No. It is everywhere, but the impact is greater in rural communities. Rural hospitals shut down because they have no doctors.
Do you advertise to find doctors?
All candidates are from referrals by friends and associates, [which] ensures qualified and successful candidates. I do not advertise. To advertise in a Third World country in desperate need of doctors is a line I do not want to cross. It may take a longer time to see my business grow, but quality and integrity are more important to me.
Will the business expand beyond bringing South African doctors to Canada?
GPP recruits for Canada with the ultimate goal of developing a physician exchange program for doctors who want experience in other countries. I would also like to get a team of doctors to work in the Third World. I believe that this is a win-win solution rather than seeing a country drained of its physicians. Also, Australia has asked me about working there, and we continue to build infrastructure to work in the United Kingdom.
What hurdles do you face in bringing doctors to Canada?
The doctors get frustrated. Eligibility to practice in Canada must be approved by the College of Physicians and Surgeons in each province. For example, I’m working with a radiologist and a surgeon from South Africa. Newfoundland wants them, but they have Alberta approval, so they must now apply to the college in Newfoundland and pay again for an eligibility review to practice there.
It sounds like there are lots of hurdles. Why do you stay in this business?
My daughter. It took seven months of her being in a great deal of pain to diagnose her autoimmune disease. As massive as this doctor shortage is, if I can save one other mother’s tears, I want to make that happen.
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