More Saskatchewan medical graduates are staying and calling Saskatchewan home, including in the Sun Country Health Region, with 30 new University of Saskatchewan family medicine grads being added to the physician workforce.
The retention rate of family medicine graduates trained at the U of S has jumped by 17 per cent over the past two years.
The physician workforce has grown by more than 500 since 2007.
One of these grads is Dr. Janessa Grosenick, originally from Radville and now practising in Weyburn at the Primary Health Care Clinic downtown.
“I feel very privileged to be able to come back to an area close to where I grew up. The community has made me feel very welcome already, and so far, my fiancé and I feel this is like home. All of the physicians here are very supportive and have made my transition into practice easier,” said Dr. Grosenick.
Marga Cugnet, CEO of Sun Country, praised the increased effort to retain grads from the U of S.
“I would say there’s more opportunity to have discussions with Saskatchewan grads. We have a second one coming in September 2016 to Weyburn,” said Cugnet.
She noted that Weyburn grad Dr. Jared Oberkirsch will be graduating at the end of May and is due to also start in September at the Primary Care Clinic.
“It’s very positive, the work that’s been taking place over the last five years or so,” added Cugnet.
“We value our close working relationship with these physicians. Over the past year, the agency has made great efforts to reach out to our U of S medical graduates to make sure they know of the opportunities available to them right here at home,” said Dr. Dennis Kendel, CEO of Saskdocs. “We look forward to working closely with future graduates to ensure they too are welcome and encouraged to practice medicine in Saskatchewan.”
“The College of Medicine’s distributed medical education model means we are continuing to expand training opportunities for medical residents in sites across the province,” said Dr. Preston Smith, dean of the College of Medicine at the U of S.
“It is gratifying to see these young physicians choosing to establish their professional practices in communities across Saskatchewan. Seeing physician retention rates on the rise illustrates the college is on the right path, and is making positive contributions to Saskatchewan’s health care system.”
Some of the physician recruitment and retention initiatives include a competitive compensation package for physicians.
The number of post-graduate physician training seats at the College of Medicine has doubled to 120, and the number of undergraduate medical education seats has expanded from 60 to 100.
Also, the Rural Family Physician Incentive program provides recent graduates with up to $120,000 over five years if they set up practice in a community with fewer than 10,000 people.
In addition, there are more family medicine residents in sites outside of Regina and Saskatoon, and a rural physician locum pool is available to provide additional physician coverage and assistance to rural family physicians.
Rural physicians also can receive an incentive of 10.5 per cent on their earnings if they adopt a full scope of practice.
