Registration and Licensure

Categories of Licenses

Full | Provisional

Application Process to Practice Medicine

Pre-assessment

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador completes a pre-assessment review of

credentials for medical practitioners who are interested in obtaining a licence to practice medicine in Newfoundland

and Labrador. To avail of this service, you may print the on-line curriculum vitae form. The form may then be

completed and mailed to the College. You may alternatively choose to submit your own written curriculum vitae.

Click above for access to the on-line curriculum vitae form and the recommended format.

The College’s curriculum vitae assessment fee is $100.00 (Canadian). Payment of the fee must accompany your

curriculum vitae.

The College is currently upgrading the on-line submission process for curriculum vitae to enable them

to be submitted on-line and the assessment fee to be paid by VISA or Master Card.

Upon receipt of your curriculum vitae, the College will assess your credentials and promptly notify you whether

you may or may not be eligible to obtain a licence.

If it appears you may be eligible for licensure, the College will include in its notification to you an application

form to apply for a licence. This form must be completed by you and returned to the College, along with the

other documents which will be listed as necessary to include for the processing of the application.

Requirements for a Licence to Practice Medicine

The requirements which must be met in order to obtain a licence are contained in the Medical Act, 2005 and

the Regulations. You may review the Medical Act, 2005 and the Regulations on by clicking here.

Licensure of International Medical Graduates for entry to General Practice

Graduates of a School or Faculty of Medicine, which is recognized by the World Health Organization and which

has carried out a continuous medical education program for more than ten years, during which it offered

and continues to offer, a medical training program that is of at least 48 months duration, may be eligible for

licensure.

Applicants must have satisfactorily completed a minimum of one year postgraduate training

acceptable to the College.

Applicants may be required to have satisfactorily completed the Medical Council of Canada Evaluating Examination

and may be required to demonstrate to the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Newfoundland & Labrador (the "College")

a reasonable fluency in the English language. In order to demonstrate reasonable fluency in the English language,

the College may require a applicant to obtain a score of 580 or a computer based score of 237 in TOEFL

(Test of English as a Foreign Language) and a score of 50 in TSE (Test of Spoken English).

Alternatively the applicant may obtain an acceptable score in TOEFL iBT.

TOEFL iBThas recently been introduced as a replacement for TOEFL and TSE.

The College requires a minimum overall score of 92, as well as a minimum score of 20 in each of the

reading, writing, and listening sections, and a minimum of 24 in the speaking section.

Please refer to the College's policy on Fluency in English which is found on this web site under Policies and Guidelines.

Medical Council of Canada Evaluating Examination Satisfactory Scores

Starting in January 2007, the Medical Council of Canada adopted new score results for the Medical Council of Canada Evaluating Examination (the "MCCEE"). The new Medical Council of Canada passing score for the MCCEE will be 250 and not 303 which was the passing score on the MCCEE prior to January 2007.

For applicants applying for entry to postgraduate training and for entry to the Clinical Skills Assessment and Training Program (the "CSAT"), the College will continue to require the Medical Council of Canada passing score of 303 for the MCCEE written after May 2002 and before January 2007.

The College will accept the new Medical Council of Canada passing score of 250 for the MCCEE written after January 1, 2007.

As a result of the new scores on the MCCEE, the College has had to revise the College's satisfactory scores for provisional licensure. The following College satisfactory scores will apply to the MCCEE taken after January 1, 2007:

Preventive Medicine & Community Health 301

Medicine 299

Surgery 299

Obstetrics/Gynecology 298

Pediatrics 298

Psychiatry 307

For the MCCEE written before January 2007 but after May 2002, the College's satisfactory scores as listed below will continue to apply.

Preventive Medicine & Community Health 376

Medicine 373

Surgery 388

Obstetrics/Gynecology 380

Pediatrics 379

Psychiatry 359

The satisfactory scores starting in January 2007 are considered by the College as an equivalent of the satisfactory scores for the period May 2002 to January 1, 2007.

For the Medical Council of Canada Evaluating Examinations written before May 2002, for provisional licensure, the College will continue to consider a medical practitioner to have satisfactorily completed the examination where he or she has obtained:

a grade of not less than 60% in each of the Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Surgery sections of the Evaluating Examination;
a grade of not less than 50% in Preventive Medicine and Community Health section of the Evaluating Examination; and
an overall grade of not less than 60% for all sections of the Evaluating Examination.

For the Medical Council of Canada Evaluating Examinations written before May 2002, the College will continue to consider a passing score as the requirement for satisfactory completion of the examination as the requisite standard for entry to the Clinical Skills Assessment and Training Program (the “CSAT”) and for educational registration under Section 14 of the Regulations.

Licensure of International Medical Graduates for entry to Specialist Practice

Medical practitioners are eligible to apply for a provisional license for entry into sponsored practice in a specialty of medicine if they meet the following criteria:

(i) Applicants who have graduated in medicine from an approved faculty or school of medicine and who have completed a minimum of four years of postgraduate training in the speciality in Canada, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or the Republic of South Africa. Such applicants may be required to have passed a specialist higher qualification examination administered by a medical authority responsible for specialist training in the country where the applicant completed postgraduate training.

(ii) Applicants who have completed three years of postgraduate training in internal medicine, pediatrics or emergency medicine in the United States of America in a program accredited by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education and who acquired by examination board certification in one of these specialties from the appropriate American Board.

The Clinical Skills Assessment and Training Program (CSAT)

Applicants applying for a licence for entry to general practice who are assessed as ineligible may be eligible to enter the Clinical Skills Assessment and Training Program (the "CSAT") which has been developed by the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Satisfactory completion of the CSAT will fulfill the clinical training requirements and enable you to continue the application process for a provisional licence.

The College determines which applicants are eligible for entry to the CSAT. If you are eligible, an application form will be forwarded to you by the College.

Before CSAT applications are considered, applicants must have obtained a passing score in the Medical Council of Canada Evaluating Examination. Applicants must be fluent in the English Language and may be required to demonstrate fluency by obtaining a score of 580 or a computer based score of 237 in TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and a score of 50 in TSE (Test of Spoken English). Alternatively the applicant may obtain an acceptable score in TOEFL iBT. TOEFL iBT has recently been introduced as a replacement for TOEFL and TSE. The College requires a minimum overall score of 92, as well as a minimum score of 20 in each of the reading, writing, and listening sections, and a minimum of 24 in the speaking section. Please refer to the College's policy on Fluency in English which is found on this web site under Policies and Guidelines.

TOEFL and TSE scores must be sent directly to the College from the Educational Testing Service. If you enter the College's TOEFL code number "0084" on the answer sheets when you sit the examination, the Educational Testing Service will send your score directly to the College. If you wrote the examination previously, supply the code number 0084 to the Educational Testing Service and request that your score be sent directly to the College.

For further information regarding TOEFL and TSE, contact:

The Education Testing Service P.O. Box 6155, Princeton New Jersey, USA 08541-6155 Telephone number: (609) 921-9000 Fax number (609): 279-9146 Web site address: www.toefl.org.

For further information regarding the CSAT, contact:

Ms. Jeanette Christopher Co-ordinator - CSAT Western Memorial Regional Hospital P.O. Box 2005 Corner Brook, NL A2H 6J7 Telephone number: (709) 639-2728 Fax number: (709) 634-9175 E-mail address: csat@swgc.mun.ca Web site address: Under development

Credentials Verification

The Physician Credentials Registry of Canada (PCRC)

The Physician Credentials Registry of Canada (PCRC) is a division of the Medical Council of Canada (MCC).

PCRC performs two vital licensing functions: it source verifies physician credentials and it serves as a centralized electronic repository of a physician's source-verified core medical credentials. PCRC offers a national standardized approach to source verification of credentials. PCRC is designed to reduce duplication of effort by gathering, verifying and permanently storing credentials in a centralized repository.

When applying for licensure, applicants will be referred, by the licensing authority, to the PCRC website www.pcrc.org to open a physician repository account. There is a one time registration fee to initiate your physician repository account and a fee for each document submitted for source verification. These fees can only be paid by VISA or MasterCard and must be authorized in Canadian dollars.

Applicants must complete the online Source Verification Request (SVR) and then submit certified copies of certain original documents to PCRC. PCRC will obtain primary source verification of the authenticity of these documents from the entity that issued these documents. Physicians should note that once their medical credentials and supporting documents are registered with PCRC, they do not need to be produced again in Canada. If physicians registered with PCRC wish to apply for licensure in another Canadian jurisdiction they need only give consent to the appropriate medical regulatory body to access their PCRC file.

To facilitate credential verification, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland & Labrador requires physicians seeking medical licensure/registration who completed their medical education outside Canada to register with PCRC.

The College requires physicians to submit copies of the following documents to PCRC for verification:

Medical school diploma
Medical school transcript
Specialty Certificate
Medical licensure/registration certificates in other jurisdictions
Postgraduate training certificates

Physicians will be notified by PCRC when they have received and processed the completed SVR, documentation and fee. The issuing institutions listed on the SVR form will be contacted to secure primary source verification of the submitted credentials. PCRC will send the institutions a copy of the document to be verified, an official verification request form and a photograph signed by the physician to assist in identification. PCRC will request that an official of an authorized institution complete and return the verification request.

If PCRC does not receive verification of a document within ninety (90) days of the initial request, it will send a second request for verification. PCRC will send up to three (3) reminders (one for each 90-day period) to institutions which have not responded to a request.

As the status of the verification evolves, PCRC will update the electronic profile of the applicant. The updated profile, including a list of verified credentials, can be made available to authorized licensed users with the applicant’s consent. This will allow both the College and the physician to monitor the progress of document authentication online.

The PCRC website contains an FAQ section in addition to a downloadable PCRC user guide designed to guide physicians through the process. Further questions about the registry and the credentials verification process can be directed to PCRC.

Postal Address:

Physician Credentials Registry of Canada
P.O. Box 8234 Stn T
Ottawa, Ontario

Canada

K1G 3H7

Courier Address:

Physician Credentials Registry of Canada

100-2283 St. Laurent Blvd.

Ottawa, Ontario

Canada

K1G 5A2

Tel: (613) 520 - 2240
Fax: (613) 248 - 5234
Email: pcrc.sd@mcc.ca

Website: http://www.pcrc.org