Recruitment of Medical Doctors

Recruitment Of Public Service Medical Doctors for the Public Health Care System in Alberta

Prepared for SALT by Brian Staples

Jan. 26, 2003

1. Need. Medical Faculty fees in Alberta are rising. This favors enrollment of students with resources, it discourages able students without those resources. High debt rates for training encourage medical students to seek higher paying, fee-for-service specialties. We have a shortage of general practitioners. Because of this, general practitioners often work under stressful conditions. We have a shortage of physicians in rural areas. There is need for a salary-based option for payments of physicians with an optimal pension benefit. The option would facilitate physicians who seek more time for effective and comprehensive treatment of patients and more time for their own families and selves.

2. The Terms. One way to meet these needs would be to offer a medical student recruitment programme based on the Regular Officer Training Programme sponsored by the Canadian Military to encourage young people to become military officers. Following are suggested terms for Provincial Government recruitment of such medical students.

a. Full tuition, an adequate living allowance, and a suitable training salary would be provided to students enrolled in this public service medical doctor training programme for the duration of their training.

b. During summer breaks, such students would be provided work experience in medical related fields, with an emphasis on placement in rural, inner city and other high medical needs areas.

c. Graduated Medical Doctors would be paid on a salaried basis, complete with a pension plan to which they would also contribute during their training period.

d. For each year of training, the graduated student would be required to provide 1.5 years of medical practice. Four years of training would require six years of salaried service, for example. Service would be in a locale determined by the Province on the basis of public health care need.

e. Enrolled students would have the option of leaving the programme with repayment of the cost of the training plus interest set at a reasonable rate. They would also lose their pension benefits gained during training.

f. Medical Doctors completing the required service could remain on salary with pension in the locale of their choosing, or they could opt for fee for service payment, but be allowed to return to the salary payment option later should they choose.