Watch above: Incentives to keep young doctors in our province appear to be working, at least in the short-term. Almost 70 percent of family medicine graduates from the University of Saskatchewan are choosing to stay here for work. Sarah Kraus explains why.
REGINA – Incentives to keep young doctors in our province appear to be working, at least in the short-term. Almost 70 per cent of the family medicine graduates from the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) are choosing to stay in the province for work, which is an 11 per cent increase compared to last year.
Dr. Dennis Kendel, CEO of Saskdocs, an agency that connects students with available jobs, said the increase is significant and will allow patients to build better relationships with their doctors and improve care.
“Right now we do some recruitment fairs, or activities where residents get to interact with different health regions,” said Kendel.
To improve its success, Saskdocs is looking to piece together job information from all of the health regions on one website, along with incentive information for each. The group’s main priority is to retain locally trained doctors, reducing turnover.
“People coming from Saskatchewan, who’ve trained here, are much more likely to sink roots and stay because they have family and other contacts in the province,” said Kendel.
READ MORE: Doctors having trouble immigrating to Saskatchewan
The dean of the U of S medical college agreed: “One of the characteristics of Canadian doctors is they tend to stay where they start.”
Therefore, if doctors choose Saskatchewan initially, it bodes well for the future.
The school increased its intake of students from 60 to 100 a few years ago. It is now pushing out 45 family doctors a year and 30 of them are staying to work in the province.
Dr. Preston Smith said those improved numbers are tied to the province’s economic prosperity.
“Historically there’s been a general out migration from the province and in the last 15 years that’s reversed dramatically. I think the same applies to doctors,” said Smith.
In 2013, the provincial government also introduced financial incentives for doctors working in rural areas or particular specialties.
Dr. Smith said there are a number of reasons why students might want to leave, including their partner or family’s needs, a desire to travel, or an interest in a specialty not offered here.
B.C. and Newfoundland have the highest doctor retention rates. Saskdocs puts us in the middle of the pack.
Neither the province nor the university currently collect information on exactly how long new doctors stay in Saskatchewan.