Funds will help physicians settle in rural areas, attract specialists
Manitoba is investing more than $2.1 million to recruit and retain doctors across the province, especially in rural areas.
In addition, $90,000 in funding will be used to repatriate Manitoban and Canadian medical students studying in other provinces or abroad.
“Some Canadians, including Manitobans, travel abroad for their medical training, and we want them to consider Manitoba as the place to practise,” said Dr. Dean Sandham, dean of the University of Manitoba’s faculty of medicine. “Approaching these students directly will encourage them to move to Manitoba to continue their careers in medicine.”
Since 1999, Manitoba's recruitment and retention programs have increased the number of physicians in the province by more than 345 and increased the number of physicians in rural Manitoba by 19 per cent, said Health Minister Theresa Oswald
The new and ongoing investments include:
• $500,000 in rural physician relief funding to support physician coverage in situations when a rural physician leaves a community for a short period of time, such as taking additional medical training
• $600,000 to support the recruitment of specialists, who are provided up to $15,000 to relocate to Manitoba in return for one year of service
• $500,000 for a physician resettlement fund to create more incentives for doctors to practise in rural Manitoba by helping doctors with moving and other expenses
• $500,000 to support grants of $50,000 for 10 second-year students taking part in the Northern Remote Physician Practice Initiative, a family medicine streamed-residency program to encourage more doctors to practise in northern Manitoba
• co-ordinating the sharing of information between rural communities, municipal leaders and regions on best practices to support their roles in recruitment and retention of physicians.
