Rural doctor shortage

[keith_015]

No problem orange. To point out for those interested in Ontario, there is a Return for Service financial incentive, which I don't think is much, but you can get $40k for 3-4 years of service in one of the positions in the documents I posted above (#24). It's not as stringent as any Canadian trained physician can apply for it while in 4th year, residency or being a new physician: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/ministry/recruit/tuition.html .

[w8kg6]

When I was in NFLD with Newf, we spoke about this issue a little bit (since NFLD is a very rural province). One of the major reasons that it's difficult to recruit docs for rural practice is based in culture. In the past decade or two, a lot of new docs in the country come from foreign nations, and quite often from cultures much different than what we have here in Canada. Given that most rural places are a lot less diverse than your typical metropolitan area, it's difficult to recruit internationally for rural medicine, which means that you've got one les card in your hand when you're trying to recruit for these areas.

 

I know this doesn't do much to solve the OP's question, but it is certainly an issue that's worth pointing out.

[keith_015]

When I was in NFLD with Newf, we spoke about this issue a little bit (since NFLD is a very rural province). One of the major reasons that it's difficult to recruit docs for rural practice is based in culture. In the past decade or two, a lot of new docs in the country come from foreign nations, and quite often from cultures much different than what we have here in Canada. Given that most rural places are a lot less diverse than your typical metropolitan area, it's difficult to recruit internationally for rural medicine, which means that you've got one les card in your hand when you're trying to recruit for these areas.

 

I know this doesn't do much to solve the OP's question, but it is certainly an issue that's worth pointing out.

 

As somebody pointed out earlier which I agree with, recruiting (stealing) doctors from other nations shouldn't be the solution. Of course it will be culture shock for a per say middle eastern doctor to be immersed in a primarily white community. What do they think will happen when they sign up to go to a place like that?

 

Canada has to start recruiting more from within to generate a long term solution. As one of my interviews for the program that I was admitted to stated that his goal was to produce "self-sustaining communities" in which there will be a consistent number of doctors available throughout the years.

 

One factor people sometimes do consider when moving to a smaller community is how many doctors there are. With an adequate number, the community likely should experience growth, which may in turn help attract new doctors to the community as well. In some places which are terribly short of doctors, some physicians may just have to take a lead and go there, which with healthier doctor numbers may be more enticing due to lower on-call and more peer support, and lower costs as a group practice.

 

Bottom line is that doctors should be self-willing to go to these communities and attracting or admitting these kind of people into medical school should be more highly stressed.