May 15, 2014
Province Celebrates as Largest Class of Physicians Graduates from University of Manitoba
– – –More Doctors to Provide Quality Care for Families: Premier Selinger
The number of doctors practicing in Manitoba will continue to grow as another class of medical students graduate from the University of Manitoba (U of M), Premier Greg Selinger said as he congratulated the 109 new graduates at the ceremony today.
“These new graduates have studied hard, put in long hours and today we celebrate their success,” said Premier Selinger. “I’m pleased to join them as they look forward to providing care to Manitoba families.”
Ninety of the new grads will stay in Manitoba to complete their residency. Thirty-four are moving forward with studies in family medicine, of which 19 will proceed with residency in rural Manitoba.
“My connection to Manitoba is deep, it is home for me. My family lives here. It’s such a privilege to serve the population of Manitoba, practicing medicine here,” said Timothy Gosselin, a graduate of the class of 2014.
Gosselin will begin training in the bilingual stream of the family medicine residency program in July and will work in Ste. Anne, the Winnipeg neighbourhood of St. Boniface and Notre Dame de Lourdes.
“As a medical school, we have a responsibility to educate and train future physicians who will serve the health-care needs of all Manitobans,” said Dr. Brian Postl, dean of the faculty of medicine, U of M. “We are delighted with retaining such a large number of graduates in our university residency programs and know this will benefit communities across the province.”
Statistics from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba show there are more than 2,500 doctors licensed to work in Manitoba. As of April 2013, there were 562 more doctors registered to practise in Manitoba than in 1999.
In addition to the 109 new graduates, the premier also noted an additional 19 doctors have recently started practice in rural and northern Manitoba. The doctors are international medical graduates who have successfully completed the one-year Medical Licensure Program for International Medical Graduates.
The training is administered by University of Manitoba International Medical Graduate Program and enhances the skills of internationally educated physicians and provides training in rural and urban emergency medicine, rural and urban family medicine, gynecology, obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatry and internal medicine. Following completion of the one-year training, the physicians are hired by rural and northern Manitoba regional health authorities to fulfil their return-of-service commitment.
“It can be challenging to re-establish your career in a new country but the university has been very supportive throughout my training,” said Dr. Olagoke Owojori, now practicing family medicine in Minnedosa. “I will be working in a community that has welcomed me and I am excited to start planting roots and working again as a physician, in Canada.”
Other physicians who completed the program in 2014 are practising in Flin Flon, Thompson, Swan River, Minnedosa, Deloraine, Killarney, Eriksdale, Ashern, Pine Falls, Gimli, Lac du Bonnet/Whitemouth, Carman, Somerset and Niverville.
Twenty new candidates have started the program and are expected to complete it in February 2015.
Other provincial investments to train, recruit and retain more physicians include:
- expanding medical school training to 110 seats after it had been reduced to 70 seats during the 1990s;
- adding new medical residency training positions, for a total of 138 first-year, post-graduate seats;
- including more specialist residency training positions in high-need specialties, such as psychiatry and internal medicine;
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adding additional rural residency training positions including five additional residency positions in the northern and remote residency stream in 2013-14, as well as four first-year medical residency training positions in Brandon, two in Morden/Winkler, two in Steinbach, and two in
Portage la Prairie; and - creating a 60 per cent tuition rebate to help retain Manitoba graduates and attract physicians trained elsewhere to move to the province.
For more information on physician recruitment in Manitoba, visit www.healthemployment.ca/.
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