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“While things are improving, it is not business as usual,” said Dr. Najma Ahmed, a trauma surgeon and educator in Toronto. Moving to a largely online format of lectures, surgical videos and simulations made it harder to teach the technicalities of procedures and give feedback, Al-Shaqsi said.Code Blue: Does Canada need a parallel private health-care system?
As fellowship training often focuses on highly specialized and infrequent surgeries, Al-Shaqsi said learners are concerned they will not receive enough training if surgeries don’t return to normal volumes soon.This means that while most surgical residents are graduating and entering the workforce on schedule, they are potentially doing so without the further specialty skills they would garner in a fellowship program _ at a time when patients can least afford to wait.