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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Program aims to lure MDs to remote areas
Province offers to cover full cost of med school
Health officials hope a new offer to pay the full cost of medical school for students who agree to work in rural and northern areas will help bring doctors to remote communities such as Norway House and Island Lake.
Premier Greg Selinger announced Thursday that medical students who enter the return of service agreement will be eligible for a $12,000 grant in each of their four years of medical school.
Each grant requires a commitment to spend six months in areas that need doctors after graduation. In their final year of school, students will have the option of taking a $25,000 grant by committing to an additional one-year return of service in areas in need of doctors.
Selinger said the agreements will help attract medical students to rural, inner-city and northern communities and is part of the provincial strategy to connect every Manitoban with a family doctor by 2015.
Second year-medical student Brady Murphy said it will also help students struggling with "crippling" debt upwards of $100,000.
"During medical school you can't really make much in terms of money on the side in terms of a full-time job or part-time job," said Murphy. "It's your full-time job going to school and learning."
Students will be eligible for the grant in fall 2011, and the University of Manitoba medical school expects about one-third of students who sign the agreements will stay in high-need areas.
Despite the large debts incurred by medical students, Murphy said he thinks most of his peers are more concerned about family than finances when it comes to choosing a practice location. However, he said the incentive will likely encourage more of his peers to stay in underserved areas, noting he's leaning toward rural and northern medicine.
Dr. Brian Postl, dean of the U of M's medical school, said more students are participating in return-of-service programs than 30 years ago, when many students simply took the money and paid it back instead of staying in Manitoba. Now, he said between 60 and 75 per cent of medical students who sign return-of-service agreements follow through with their commitment.
Postl said the hope is the incentive, along with the northern residency program, will help bring doctors to communities such as Norway House. Postl said the northern residency program will gradate between 10 and 15 medical students a year, and the goal is to get teams of doctors based in large First Nation communities.
He said the medical school will meet with provincial and federal health officials and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs in January to determine which communities should be priorities.
"I'm hoping as early as even next fall, we might be able to get back into places like Norway House or potentially Island Lake in the future," Postl said.
Postl estimates about one-third of students who sign the agreement to work in high-needs areas will likely stay after the contract ends. However, he said it's still very difficult to attract and retain physicians in parts of the province, and it will take a long-term commitment to improve that.
"It's a tough road ahead," Postl said.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 10, 2010 A8
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