With rural communities across Canada, including right here in West Central Alberta, under increasing pressure to attract and retain doctors and nurses to their smaller hospitals and clinics, anything that serves to alleviate the situation is welcome news.
A recently announced initiative by the Harper government may prove to be one such positive move ñ offering doctors and nurses a break on their student loans if they agree to practise in rural communities.
Yet whether any good done by this new initiative will be overshadowed in Alberta by the months-long dispute between the Redford Tories and the province's doctors remains an open question.
The Harper government recently announced that family doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and residents in family medicine in more than 4,200 rural communities could be eligible for Canada student loan forgiveness starting this spring.
ìOur government is committed to strengthening health care for all Canadians,î said federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq. ìBy offering Canada student loan forgiveness, we're doing our part to encourage family doctors and nurses to serve Canadians in rural and remote communities and improve access to primary health care.î
Under the initiative nurses and nurse practitioners working in designated communities ñ those with populations of 50,000 or less ñ will be eligible to receive up to $4,000 per year in Canada student loan forgiveness, while family doctors and residents in family medicine could receive up to $8,000 per year, to a maximum of five years.
To be eligible for the program, family doctors, residents in family medicine, nurses and nurse practitioners must have been employed for 12 months in a designated rural or remote community and must have provided in-person services for a minimum of 400 hours, or 50 days, throughout that year.
As well, residents in family medicine must have provided a minimum of 400 hours, or 50 days, of in-person service to be eligible.
While reducing the student loan burden on anyone in any profession would obviously be a benefit to the former student, giving doctors and nurses such a break is good public health policy and well worth the $9-million cost.
Hopefully, the Redford government will be able to end its ongoing and increasingly bitter dispute with the province's doctors ñ a crisis triggered when the Tories unilaterally imposed a new contract on Alberta physicians last fall.
If, on the other hand, the PCs fail to find a reasonable settlement with the physicians soon ñ and sick people start to suffer as a result ñ any headway made by this new federal government student loan initiative may end up meaning very little to hard-pressed Alberta patients.
