April 2024
Re: “Doctor’s orders” (Brian Lilley, Toronto Sun, 4 April): Maybe the solution is encouraging medical students to enter into the primary-care field by offering incentives such as free tuition, backed up by a contractual obligation that they must stay in the field for a specified time period, such as 5 years. Once we get new family doctors established in the community, many of them would likely find it too impractical to abandon their practice for a different field.
I believe the same idea could work with encouraging doctors to practice in underserviced communities, not just for medical students in Ontario but across Canada. Perhaps offer free tuition or a free home for 5 years, but the medical student has to practice in a small community in Alberta or Manitoba, rather than stay in large urban areas like the GTA or Greater Vancouver. It’s very likely that a high percentage of doctors would end up putting down roots in the community. They would make friendships; they would have children registered in local schools; they might join local service clubs, and at the end of their 5-year term, would willingly choose to stay in the community. I think it’s a win-win, and I say this as a fiscal conservative. It worked to encourage western migration in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
