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New doctors choose to stay in N.L.

15.07.2008 16:00 Health - Source: cbc.ca

A bursary program designed to keep new doctors in Newfoundland and Labrador, appears to be paying off, according to Health Minister Ross Wiseman.

The provincial government, along with the Memorial University School of Medicine have been encouraging medical school graduates to stay in the province with a bursary program for the last three years.

Under the program, doctors receive $25,000 to practice one year of family medicine in the province.

At a press conference Friday, Wiseman said almost 90 per cent of new doctors have signed on for jobs in smaller communities in the province.

"I think today, for example, we are now seeing dividends for us and in the next week we'll announce a major investment in this year's bursary program," Wiseman said at a press conference Friday. "So that kind of investment is now starting to come back and pay dividend."

Seventeen of the 20 recent family medicine graduates from Memorial's medical school plan to stay in Newfoundland and Labrador. Most will work in smaller towns such as Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Port aux Basques, Baie Verte, Bonne Bay, Twillingate and Gander.

James Rourke, dean of medicine, said many graduates are from the province and have expressed wishes to stay.

"I think because they grew up here, they want to stay here and because the working conditions in many of these places are what they can see themselves working in," Rourke said.

He believes the key to keeping more family doctors in the province is recruiting them as soon as they graduate from the local medical school. The theory is that once they work for a few years within the province, they will be less likely to relocate out of province.

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