31102 General practitioners and family physicians

What this occupation covers

General practitioners and family physicians diagnose and treat the diseases, physiological disorders and injuries of patients. They provide primary contact and continuous care toward the management of patients' health. They usually work in private practice, including group or team practices, hospitals and clinics. Residents in training to be general practitioners or family physicians are included in this unit group.

Official main duties

The NOC profile lists 14 main duties for this code.

• Examine patients and take their histories, order laboratory tests, X-rays and other diagnostic procedures and consult with other medical practitioners to evaluate patients' physical and mental health
• Prescribe and administer medications and treatments
• Perform and assist in routine surgery
• Provide emergency care
• Provide acute care management
• Vaccinate patients to prevent and treat diseases
• Deliver babies and provide pre-natal and post-natal care
• Advise patients and their families on health care including health promotion, disease, illness and accident prevention
• Provide counselling and support to patients and their families on a wide range of health and lifestyle issues
• Perform patient advocacy role
• Coordinate or manage primary patient care
• Provide continuous care to patients
• Supervise home care services
• Report births, deaths, and contagious and other diseases to governmental authorities.

Do not copy these lines into your reference letter. The letter has to describe what you actually did, in your employer’s words. DUTYPROOF flags wording lifted from the NOC as something to review, and an officer reading a letter that mirrors the NOC reads it the same way.

What DUTYPROOF screens for

This is DUTYPROOF’s screening threshold, not IRCC’s decision. For this NOC, screening requires at least 3 of its 14 official duties to be evidenced in your own words, plus the required letter elements. IRCC asks that you performed the actions in the occupation’s lead statement and a substantial number of its main duties — so treat the duty coverage as the number that matters, not the badge.

Codes this one is confused with

The NOC profile names these itself. Choosing the wrong code of a look-alike pair is the most common way genuine work experience fails to establish eligibility.

• 31201 Chiropractors
• 30010 Managers in health care
• 31302 Nurse practitioners
• 31209 Other professional occupations in health diagnosing and treating
• 31303 Physician assistants, midwives and allied health professionals
• 31100 Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine

Excluded from this code

• Chiropractors (See 31201 Chiropractors)
• Managers in health care (See 30010 Managers in health care)
• Nurse practitioners (See 31302 Nurse practitioners)
• Other professional occupations in health diagnosing and treating (See 31209 Other professional occupations in health diagnosing and treating)
• Physicians assistants, midwives and allied health professionals (See 31303 Physician assistants, midwives and allied health professionals)
• Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (See 31100 Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine)

Job titles filed under this code

A title on this list does not by itself put your experience in this code — the duties in your letter decide that.

civil aviation medical officer · community preventive medicine physician · company physician · doctor of medicine (MD) · family doctor · family physician · family practitioner · general practice intern · general practice physician · general practice resident · general practitioner (GP) · industrial medical officer · industrial medicine physician · industrial physician · intern · locum doctor · medical doctor · medical missionary · medical officer - Canadian Armed Forces · medical officer of health (MOH) · missionary doctor · physician resident · primary care physician · public health physician

Employment requirements

• A bachelor's degree or in Quebec, completion of a college program and one year of pre-medicine university studies is usually required.
• Graduation from an approved medical school and two to three years of family medicine residency training are required.
• Completion of the qualifying examinations of the Medical Council of Canada or the Collège des médecins du Québec and licensing by the provincial or territorial licensing authority are required.