North Could Serve As Physician Recruiting Model

North Could Serve As Physician Recruiting Model

Monday, December 14, 2009 at 10:25

A policy director with Saskatchewan Health says the ministry will work to include northern voices in the formation of a new doctor recruitment agency.

This past week, the province announced plans to open up a one-stop shopping outlet for doctors seeking to practise in Saskatchewan.

The hope is that the province can begin to keep more of the physicians it trains, as well as attracting new ones.

Shayleen Salazar says all three northern health regions will be asked for their input about who should sit on the agency’s board of directors.

Salazar also says northern Saskatchewan — where doctors are recruited by and work as employees of the University of Saskatchewan’s Northern Medical Services — could be an operational model they study, due to its relative success in attracting doctors.

“The north is probably envied by other areas of the province right now, in terms of (how) through the Northern Medical Services model, they’ve been really successful in recruiting physicians and providing physician services to really remote areas of the province,” she says.

Salazar says the new recruitment agency should be operational by spring 2010.