Chamber reaches out to medical students with local roots

Group targets medical students with local roots
The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton)
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Page: A3
Section: News
Byline: SHAWN BERRY berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com

The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce is focusing its physician-recruitment plan on medical students originally from the Fredericton area.

"Certainly having grown up in this area, they probably have a predisposition to come back. We want to make sure that happens," said chamber president Dale Dunphy, who formed the president's committee on physician recruitment.

"We'll keep in touch with them and work to understand some of their decision criteria, whether it be salary, whether it be office accommodations, administrative help or more family-oriented attributes," he said.

Dunphy said it was imperative for the chamber, the largest in the province, to take a leadership role.
"From an economic development sense alone it makes great sense," he said.

A growing number of companies are looking at access to physicians as a necessity before they set up shop. Employers say their employees need to have adequate access to medical care.

More than 1,400 names are on a wait-list for a family doctor in the Fredericton area.

Committee chairman Robert Hatheway, a local orthodontist and entrepreneur, said it's important to maintain contact with medical students from the area.

"If we can bring them to our area and support them in setting up practice, that is going to assist us with the retention aspect of it," he said.

Hatheway said the committee won't be providing financial incentives for doctors looking to establish a practice in the area. He said he sees it as a slippery slope when some jurisdictions are offering $150,000 relocation bonuses.

Instead, the committee will put the focus on what Fredericton has to offer.

"Established practitioners may be looking to re-establish for whatever reason. It may be for higher quality of work and family life issues. We think that Fredericton offers that," Dunphy said.

Time is of the essence in recruiting people, he said.

"I'd think there would be some urgency in our participation in helping them make the decision," Dunphy said.

Through its partners, the committee wants to give physicians access to essential information such as available office space; assistance with administrative management; employment opportunities for
their spouses; and access to a tour of the community and meetings with key stakeholders and service providers.

New Brunswick pays for 240 medical school spaces every year. The province's physician recruiter knows of another 65 New Brunswickers studying medicine. No breakdown was available Tuesday where those students are from.

Dr. William Cook, medical director for River Valley Health, is working with the chamber on the project.

He welcomes the involvement of local leaders in the recruitment efforts.

"We're very pleased the community is getting involved," he said.

"I have to think having them at the table is going to help."

Cook said he's looking forward to calling on committee members next time a doctor comes to visit the city.

Cook said maintaining contact with medical students is essential to recruitment and retention efforts in the region.

"I think we know that where people end up practicing depends on their background, where they come from, where they've done their training, and the nature of the community they have in mind and how they're received," Cook said.

"If we have New Brunswickers or locals doing a good part of their training here, we probably have a good chance of keeping them here if we maintain contact with them."

© 2008 The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton)