PCs pledge to recruit, retain more doctors in Manitoba

Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister is promising to recruit and retain more doctors for Manitoba.

Pallister made the pledge in front of the Selkirk General Hospital Tuesday afternoon. The announcement follows two others in recent days from the PCs aimed at improving Manitoba's health-care system.

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Pallister said Manitoba has lost too manyphysicians under Selinger's watch as premier and broken a promise to provide a family doctor for everyone in the province who needs one.

Pallister is pledging to improve the provincial physician recruitment and retention program, engage medical professionals in the system on how to do that and hire experts to help recruit foreign doctors.

He acknowledged that high taxes are a factor in losing new doctors to other provinces, but added he couldn't commit to lowering high-income tax rates to help stem the flow of physicians leaving Manitoba.

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Pallister said he would have to see "how deep a hole we're in" before committing to tax cuts. The PC leader was vague on whether he would boost bonuses paid to doctors as a way of keeping them in Manitoba, saying only that he would look into it.

The NDP fired back at the PC leader's jabs and said the party has failed to provide any concrete numbers in terms of how it would recruit more doctors to Manitoba.

"Maybe that's because they know that numbers don't lie," said Andrew Tod, spokesperson for the Manitoba NDP.

"Manitoba lost 117 doctors under the Tories. We have 732 more doctors now than when we saw them leaving our province under theFilmonConservative government.TheFilmonConservatives cut medical school spaces down to 70, and we've increased that number to 110," said Tod.

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Currently, Manitoba sets aside approximately $10 million a year in bonus money under the Physician Retention Fund.

"According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Manitoba has a higher percentage of doctors practicing in rural areas than Saskatchewan, Alberta, or B.C.,"said the NDP.

The province also has a number of programs currently geared toward training and keeping doctors, including a Practice Assistance Option, a Medical Licensure Program and an Educational Assistance Option.

Pallister said he would review those programs for improvements.

Manitobans head to the polls April 19.

Full statement from NDP spokesperson Andrew Tod:

Brian Pallister's Conservatives have failed to provide any concrete numbers on how they will recruit more doctors to rural Manitoba.

Maybe that's because they know that numbers don't lie: Manitoba lost 117 doctors under the Tories. We have 732 more doctors now than when we saw them leaving our province under the Filmon Conservative government. The Filmon Conservatives cut medical school spaces down to 70, and we've increased that number to 110.

Pallister has said this election that everything is on the table when it comes to his plan to cut half a billion dollars from public services. That means less funding for doctor recruitment.

We are making steady progress to recruit and retain more rural doctors: we've established free tuition for doctors who stay in Manitoba to serve in rural or Northern communities, we've expanded the amount of rural residencies available for new doctors, our mobile clinics are seeing families in communities around Selkirk, and we've created a Rural Physician Recruitment Advisory Committee in partnership with the Association of Manitoba Municipalities to help make sure every community has the support they deserve.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Manitoba has a higher percentage of doctors practicing in rural areas than Saskatchewan, Alberta, or B.C.