Health Minister Tyler Shandro says the Province is continuing to work on attracting and retaining doctors in rural areas.
Shandro says one part of the plan they started last spring was removing the cap on premiums that rural doctors can bill.
“We’re also trying innovative ways to attract new doctors to rural areas like buying spots in medical schools and then entering into agreements so we can make sure that when they graduate out of med school, that they go to remote and rural areas where we need doctors the most.”
Shandro was on the Trending 55 Hot Seat, and says there’s some other initiatives they’re looking at to address the issue.
“Part of it is paying rural doctors more, but also trying to be more creative and maybe doing more than just paying them on a fee for service, but perhaps also using other models like paying a salary so nobody has to take the risk in going to a rural community that we’re willing to pay them a salary.”
We also talked about the hiring of more nurse practitioners and more beds in continuing care facilities, the full discussion is below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
