He was a doctor for 17 years in Ukraine. Now, in B.C., he’s a welder

Alex Martsiv worked as a family doctor in Ukraine for 17 years, running a practice in a rural western area of the country.

“I have 10 villages and the population was around 5,000 people for just one doctor,” Martsiv told Global News.

However, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, life changed for his family, including his seven children.

“Every day we saw missiles, which was flying about our houses and they were shot down,” Martsiv said.

The family came to Canada as part of the Emergency Travel Program and settled in Abbotsford, B.C., but Martsiv ran into complications to resume working as a doctor.

It took 18 months to verify his Ukrainian credentials, and he still needs to take a series of exams estimated to cost up to $6,000.

To feed his family, he’s been working as a welder.

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“I prefer to be a doctor because it’s my life,” Martsiv said. “It’s a half of my life to be a doctor and I like to help people very much.”

1:50 B.C. hopes to attract U.S. doctors

In February’s speech from the throne, the provincial NDP government pointed to efforts to recruit and retain more doctors while allowing doctors to spend more time with their patients.

The B.C. government revamped its pay model for family doctors in 2023, which the province said, as of September 2024, had attracted 835 physicians to practise and resulted in about a quarter-million people being connected to primary care.

However, Abbotsford South Conservative MLA Bruce Banman says B.C. is missing an opportunity to get professionals working now.

“Here we have a medical doctor that practised for 17 years, will take the exams, just can’t afford to because he’s a refugee, yet we’re going to bend over backwards for other doctors,” Banman said.

Two weeks ago, Banman took Martsiv’s case to the B.C. legislature and Premier David Eby said he would love for Martsive to be a doctor in B.C.

“I’m happy to work with the member to see whatever we can do to get him off the sidelines and into our hospitals,” Eby said.

Martsiv responded, saying he would love that to happen and he’s hopeful it will.