Sask. boosting rural and northern physician recruitment incentive to $200,000 over 5 years

The Saskatchewan government says a planned boost will make the province's program to recruit and retain physicians in rural and northern areas one of the most competitive incentives in the country.

On Wednesday, Premier Scott Moe told delegates at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention in Saskatoon that the province is increasing the total incentive in its Rural Physician Incentive Program to $200,000 over five years, starting April 1.

The previous total incentive was $47,000 over four years.

"That will be one of the most ambitious and aggressive rural physician incentive programs that you will find in the nation of Canada," Moe told delegates.

The new five-year incentive is back-loaded over the final two years.

Qualifying physicians would receive $15,000 at the end of each of their first and second years, $20,000 at the end of their third year, and $75,000 at the end of each of their fourth and fifth years, the government said.

It said eligibility for the incentive is also expanding beyond new graduates, and will now include physicians practicing in rural and northern communities who have been assessed through the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment Program (SIPPA).

Physicians excluded from the program include doctors practising in the Saskatoon and Regina bedroom communities of Balgonie, Emerald Park, Langham, Lumsden, Martensville, Pilot Butte, Warman and White City.

Saskatchewan's Rural Physician Incentive Program first launched in 2013-14.

Dr. Andries Muller, the president of the Saskatchewan College of Family Physicians, said the college is very happy with the announcement and the government's recognition of the role family physicians play in rural and remote areas.

"We're also glad to see that there's recognition for the fact that there is a crisis in family medicine," he said. "And part of that crisis is the recruitment as well as the retention of family physicians in rural and remote areas."

He's also glad the program has been expanded to include internationally trained medical graduates that have gone through Saskatchewan's assessment program.

He said Saskatchewan has had some internationally trained physicians go to a rural areas, but not stay there very long for various reasons — and he hoped this program will help those physicians stay a little longer.

"We know if someone stays in the community a little longer, maybe if they're young and they get married and have children [who] go to the school, they're more likely to put roots down in that community and stay on afterwards," he said.