[Newsbot]

Title: Manitoba to fully cover medical school costs of students who agree to work where they are needed most
Category: Political
Posted By: Curtman
Date: 2010-12-09 13:45:55
Canadian

[RUEZ]

Good idea.

[ShepherdsDog]

It's about time a common sense approach like this was taken. Now if we could get some foreign trained physicians to do so for a few years while they are trained, evaluated and accredited

[Choban]

Great idea, we need it on a federal level though as there is more than just manitoba in canada

[andyt]

They've had a program like this in the US for years. And it pays way more than 60k. Many students don't honor the commitment. For one thing the govt is lax in enforcing it, for another they can make so much more money in other areas that it's worth having to pay back the loans. Problem for a doctor is that it's very expensive to set up a practice, so it's hard for these docs to move out of the blighted area onces they've started.

Better would be to pay docs a salary, and pay more for the low serviced areas. The health services in Europe pay docs a salary and seem to work OK.

[Curtman]

Some of the interesting comments from another discussion I had about this:

AM AM:

I think they should just go the way of accepting people who were going to work in northern/rural areas regardless. Sending a doctor to live in a rural/northern community for 6 months will help little when they leave at the end of that period

(Although the news release talks abouta 2.5 year commitment in total: "In total, students will have access to a maximum of $61,000 over four years in exchange for a two‑and‑a‑half‑year commitment to under-serviced communities.")

SG SG:

It's not that we don't pay doctors enough keeping them from practicing in rural areas, it's mostly an issue of comfort level. Med students from rural areas are way more likely to practice medicine rurally, it would be far more cost effective to specifically allocate positions in med school for doctors intending to practice rurally.

SG SG:

I totally agree, we need to allocate medical school positions for doctors from rural areas who are willing to settle in rural areas. I think that the College of Physicians and Surgeons also plays a huge counterproductive part in this situation.

MM MM:

There are far more people capable of being doctors than there are spots in medical school - picking the person with the 34th best MCAT scores who will practice in the Pas is far better than picking the 29th best MCAT scores who plans on practicing in San Diego. At least IMHO

SG SG:

I think you could agree that there are many medical school candidates who are turned away, and yet would make fine doctors, simply because of their interview, the determining factor tends to be "political" (at least in the opinion of my friends father, who interviews med students, and has practiced medicine for over 20 years).
You can certainly find rural students who have comparable GPA's and MCAT scores, and all I'm proposing is that rural students, who are technically qualified to be in med school (that is to say, are academically successful) and are willing to practice in rural areas, should be given extra consideration, rather than the same interview process.

SM SM:

Physicians who choose to practice out of province or country should be required to pay back their education. Any medical student's education is already subsidized by the Province in some way...let's start with Residency programs.

[andyt]

I agree with MM and SG - expand the number of places in med schools.

[EyeBrock]

Good input from your discussion Curt.

I agree that more should be done to encourage GP's, MD's to locate in rural communities.

I also think that medical students (who are nearly all subsidised in some way as they train) should have some residency requirements or the pay back the portion of their education funded by the province when they leave to go and make big cash in the US etc.

[Curtman]

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

Good input from your discussion Curt.

I agree that more should be done to encourage GP's, MD's to locate in rural communities.

I also think that medical students (who are nearly all subsidised in some way as they train) should have some residency requirements or the pay back the portion of their education funded by the province when they leave to go and make big cash in the US etc.

Yeah, that group is mostly local health care professionals, some students. They have a lot of insight into this issue. I was surprised that there wasn't more enthusiasm toward this program. The NDP here is desperately trying to gain the support of the unions, I don't know if it's working.

[Brenda]

We have a doctor here who is going away again. They got here for her job (as a family doctor) but her husband has not been able to find a job. He is an engineer, and you would think the Teck would have hired him on the spot. They didn't, and we are losing another doctor because there just is NO WORK here.

[EyeBrock]

I'm surprised you don't move Brenda. When I first came here I was in Labrador. I couldn't really find decent work in either Labrador or the Island so I came to Ontario. I'd much prefer to be in NFLD but gotta go where the work is.

[Brenda]

I'm not alone.

[EyeBrock]

There's plenty of work for all elsewhere........