Family Medicine

An important item was missing from Mary Williams Walsh’s article (“A Big Dose of Family Medicine,” July 16) about family medicine in the U.S. and Canada. Because Canada has an excess of family practitioners while the U.S. is experiencing a severe shortage, a federal law was enacted in 1991 to make it easier for Canadian doctors to obtain temporary visas to practice medicine in the U.S.

Although many of these Canadian physicians have obtained state licenses and signed contracts to work in medically underserved rural areas, a combination of bureaucratic inertia and red tape is acting to undermine the new law.

Until such time as U.S. medical schools begin to produce enough family practitioners to serve the needs of our population, we should be welcoming with open arms any qualified Canadian family doctor who wishes to practice in the U.S.

CARL SHUSTERMAN

Board of Governors

American Immigration

Lawyers Assn.

Los Angeles