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By Derek Craddock

DOCTOR INCENTIVES

New doctor incentive program misses the mark says Director of Northern Medical Services

Apr 5, 2023 | 9:00 AM

The province now has a plan to incentivize more doctors to come to the province, but will that make a difference in northern Saskatchewan?

The incentive program, which started on April 1, is designed to recruit more physicians for rural and remote communities.

But it doesn’t help doctors already living in these areas, according to the Director of Northern Medical Services with the University of Saskatchewan.

“Overall, the idea of it is a good thing,” said Dr. Veronica McKinney. “The hard part of it is really incentivizing new physicians coming in but it really doesn’t acknowledge those physicians who have been working and practising in these communities for years.”

As an example, the NMS helps teach doctors in residence in these communities. They are eligible for the new incentive but those physicians who live in the community and teach new doctors are not eligible.

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“If you add in the incentive on top of what they’re earning, that brand new person could potentially be earning more than the person who taught them, which seems somehow wrong,” said McKinney. “It does make one not feel appreciated.”

The Opposition NDP brought up the question of eligibility in the legislature. The Critic for Rural and Remote Health Matt Love pressed his Sask. Party counterpart Everett Hindley on the matter, asking who the incentives are available to.

Hindley responded that they are only for new employees, adding salaries and benefits was all that was needed for retaining current doctors.

As for the physician situation in the northern region, McKinney said they’re right now, pretty stable.

“There’s a great number of positions for physicians. I think the other challenge is that the workforce has changed over the number of years.

She pointed to changing habits like more part-time work and condescending time off as some of those challenges.

McKinney said the entire province is competing for new physicians, not just those in rural and remote Saskatchewan, which is another flaw she finds in incentivizing new doctors.

“Ironically, there are places like Saskatoon that are in very high demand for family physicians,” she said. “This is where this incentive program sort of misses the mark. It really does need to look at each community including some of the urban centres around what some of the needs are.”

Finally, she said health care workers need to be consulted when it comes to offering programs like this as they know what takes place in rural and remote areas and what needs to be done to recruit and retain doctors.

—

derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @princealbertnow