Initiatives put more doctors in rural Alberta

Two initiatives will improve access to health services for Albertans living in smaller communities by attracting more medical students to rural family medicine and putting more family physician residents into rural practice.

The first initiative is a new program that will provide 10 bursaries that will cover 100 per cent of medical school tuition in exchange for a five-year commitment to practice in rural Alberta. Tuition includes differential fees and ranges from $12,000-$16,000 a year.

The bursaries will be available in the 2005-06 academic year. Alberta Health and Wellness and Alberta Learning will jointly share the cost of the new bursaries, which will be approximately $590,000.

The new bursaries complement an existing program that provides bursaries of $5,000 per year for a maximum of four years to Alberta medical students with rural backgrounds. Under this program there is no requirement to return to practice in a rural setting.

In addition to the bursaries, the Alberta Rural Family Medicine Network is adding 10 new rural residency positions in 2005-06, increasing the program to 30 positions. Residents under the network spend two years on rotation training among 16 rural towns, such as High Level, Jasper and Crowsnest Pass.

As residents, doctors gain hands-on experience caring for patients in community, clinical or hospital settings as part of the process to qualify for full medical licences.

The additional residencies will cost about $814,000 more per year, from the current budget of $1.9 million for program infrastructure and resources.

The Alberta government created the Rural Family Medicine Network in 2001 as a collaboration between the Rural Physician Action Plan and the Universities of Alberta and Calgary. Thirty-five doctors have completed the program since it began in July 2001.