The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The NDP government has accepted all recommendations from a study on how to bolster the number of doctors in northern and rural areas of Manitoba. The Brandon Medical Education Study calls for more doctors to be trained in Brandon and rural communities, and the province says it will do just that. 'We want to ensure we are training doctors for families in all corners of Manitoba,' said Advanced Education Minister Erin Selby, 'and by implementing all 10 recommendations from the medical education study, we will see more doctors training in Brandon and other rural communities across the province.' The study recommends creating more rural medical residencies starting next year. Medical residencies are the last stage of training for doctors following medical school. The province has already created six new family medicine residencies in Brandon, Steinbach and Morden/Winkler this year as part of its plan to give every Manitoban access to a family doctor by 2015. 'By training more doctors in Brandon and other rural communities, we will help families across Manitoba have better access to a family doctor when they need one and close to home,' said Health Minister Theresa Oswald. Another recommendation in the study calls for the creation of community campuses with clinical teaching units for third- and fourth-year medical students interested in rural practice. The study also urges further assessment of whether additional medical school seats are required in the province, and the potential for those seats to form a satellite medical campus in Brandon and possibly other rural communities in the future. A rural medical education working group to be established will include representatives from the faculty of medicine at the University of Manitoba, Brandon University and other partners to help implement the study's recommendations. Dr. Brian Postl, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Manitoba and vice-chair of the study steering committee, said Manitoba needs more physicians, particularly in rural and northern communities. 'The University of Manitoba is pleased to implement these recommendations to better meet the needs of patients all across our province,' he added. _ Compiled from a Government of Manitoba news release
