Foreign doctor files complaint over delays

A radiologist from India has filed a complaint with the P.E.I. Human Rights Commission against the P.E.I. College of Physicians and Surgeons over what he calls unnecessary delays in getting a licence to practice.

Dr. Atanu Chaudhuri moved to P.E.I. in 2007 with his wife and two teenage children. They bought a house and an apartment block in Summerside, and Chaudhuri joined the Rotary Club.

In the fall, Chaudhuri applied to the college for a licence to practice radiology on P.E.I. At the time, P.E.I. was looking for radiologists. Wait times for mammography readings were long, and the province was relying on locums to clear backlogs.

Shortly after he applied, the college sent him a letter saying he'd been approved for an assessment process run jointly between the P.E.I. college and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. For the next two years he said he went back and forth with the P.E.I. college, trying to find out the status of his application.

"For the first year I had absolute, 100 per cent, faith in the system," said Chauduri.

"I thought the system would work to help me."

Application never arrived

In 2009, Chaudhuri called the royal college in Ottawa himself. He said officials there told him they never received his application from P.E.I. The royal college told CBC News the same thing.

'I'm just pushed out of the profession.' Dr. Antanu Chaudhuri

Around the same time, Chaudhuri filed a complaint against the P.E.I. college with the human rights commission. He felt he was being discriminated against because he got his training in India. The commission asked Chaudhuri and the college to try to work out their differences before launching a formal procedure.

Some months after that, the royal college said they finally received Chaudhuri's application from the P.E.I. college, but it wasn't complete.

Almost four years after he first applied, Chaudhuri is no closer to being licenced on P.E.I.

Chaudhuri feels after all this time not practicing medicine, his skills are outdated.

"I'm just pushed out of the profession for not having worked for three years, through no fault of my own," he said.

The P.E.I. college will only say Chaudhuri has no basis for his human rights claim.

Chaudhuri's allegations have not been proven. The human rights commission is still investigating the file.