Advanced Education, Skills and Immigration Minister Wayne Ewasko and Health and Seniors Care Minister Audrey Gordon have announced that nine family doctors have started or will start practicing in rural Interlake communities, including Ashern.
Ewasko says four of the new physicians are graduates of the one-year Medical Licensure Program for International Medical Graduates offered through the University of Manitoba, which is designed to integrate physicians who have practiced internationally into the Canadian medical system.
“This program has allowed physicians who have practiced internationally to better understand the needs of rural patients and the variety of health-care services people require.”
Recruitment efforts by the region and private clinics are seeing new physicians begin practice in Beausejour, Eriksdale, Lac du Bonnet, Teulon, and Selkirk, with internationally experienced medical graduates working in Ashern and Pine Falls.
The four international medical graduate physicians will be working in rural and underserviced areas of Manitoba and have made a four-year commitment to the region.
The minister noted the nine family physicians include two doctors who completed their two-year residency program in the Interlake-Eastern RHA, as well as three who were trained in rural and Northern Manitoba through the Dauphin, Brandon and Northern-Remote residency programs.
