Memorial University plans to increase the number of students in its medical school by 50 per cent over the next three years, the school's dean of medicine, James Rourke, told a public forum in Grand Falls-Windsor.
He said he's working with the provincial government to encourage more rural students to become doctors.
"That means a whole lot more students from Central [Newfoundland] who will hopefully come back here for much of their training, who hopefully will then come back here for some of their residency training, and hopefully come back here to practice," he said.
Harbour Breton resident John Vallis, who attended the forum, said the regional health authorities should go one step further and address the doctor shortage in rural communities by providing incentives.
"I don't know what flexibility they have, if any, to provide any incentives to physicians in particular who want to go and work in the sticks … because that would help to solve the problem," he said.
Rourke agreed that incentives like free rent and paid assistants are a couple of ideas that health boards need to consider when trying to lure new doctors to remote communities.
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