Liberals to entice doctors to small town Alberta

Alberta Liberal Leader Raj Sherman continued tosell his party's healthcare policy Wednesday, saying his party is willing to pay doctors and nurses to train and workinrural communities.

The Liberals would enticedoctors and nursesby providing incentives from a $100 million fund put aside forhealth initiatives.

"We need to provide incentives for medical professionals to choose generalist fields over specialist ones and to expand medical programs into regional colleges, integrating medical training with smaller Alberta communities," said Sherman Wednesday.

"Becoming a doctor takes a long time," he said."But life doesn't stop while you're away in Edmonton or Calgary training."

"You fall in love, you get married, you have kids. It's very hard to pick up everything at the end of your training and move to one of Alberta's other centres."

Rural communities can't affordbonuses necessary tobring in new doctors, he said, leaving towns with inferior healthcare to bigger cities.

"If your health care is 100km away, you don't have health care," Sherman said. "And if you don't have health care, you don't have a sustainable community."