Ongoing recruitment efforts for physicians by the province are netting big results for communities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. Today the Honourable Ross Wiseman, Minister of Health and Community Services, provided an update on the recruitment of family practice physicians. He was joined by Dr. James Rourke, Dean of Memorial University�s Faculty of Medicine.

"Out of 20 recent family medicine graduates at Memorial University, 17 have just begun or will begin practice in our province over the next few months, with a good proportion of them in rural areas," said Minister Wiseman. "This tremendous recruitment success is a result of our government�s steadfast commitment to, and significant investments in, recruiting physicians. Now, the people of this province will see the benefits. With these 17 new physicians soon setting up in communities throughout the province, we are greatly enhancing access to physician care for thousands of our residents."

The 17 new family practice physicians will be located in Happy Valley-Goose Bay (two), Port aux Basques (one), Baie Verte (one), Bonne Bay (one), Twillingate (one) Gander (one), Paradise (one), Conception Bay South (one), Mount Pearl (one) and St. John�s (six). One physician is undecided about location, but has committed to practicing in the province. Almost all of these physicians have received family practice bursaries, a primary recruitment tool for the province which sees a physician providing one year of service for every $25,000 bursary received. The bursaries awarded to this group of physicians will result in 31 years of family practice service for the province. These bursaries are part of the Provincial Government�s $6 million annual investment in physician recruitment and retention initiatives.

"Our bursary program is obviously effective and we are seeing impressive results," said Minister Wiseman. "The Faculty of Medicine does tremendous work in producing skilled physicians while also providing excellent opportunities for medical students to experience practice in rural areas right here in Newfoundland and Labrador. In fact, just a few months ago, the faculty was recognized with a national award by the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada for its success in placing graduates in rural family medicine programs for their residencies."

"I am very pleased that our collaborative efforts have secured so many family physicians for placement in communities throughout the province," said Dr. Rourke. "Our office of physician recruitment has been working hard and I am confident that we will continue to build on this success. The expansion planned for our medical school will enable us to train more medical students in Newfoundland and Labrador to become doctors to practice here and this will help build a strong and stable physician work force for Newfoundland and Labrador."

"Our government understands the tremendous value in training more of our own people to build up our workforce of physicians," said Minister Wiseman. "We know that over 80 per cent of Memorial graduates who we recruit to practice here stay for at least five years. It is also interesting to note that approximately 40 per cent of Memorial medical graduates grew up in a rural community. These numbers support our recent Budget 2008 announcement of an initial $4 million investment to begin the expansion of the MUN Medical School this year. Based on established trends, we know that this will positively impact the supply of physicians for our province and therefore, further enhance our achievements in physician recruitment and retention."

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