REMOVE BARRIERS TO RURAL MEDICINE Says MP Bruce HYER

Written by NDP Media on 06 February 2012

All Canadians deserve adequate access to health care, no matter where they live," said Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer

Hyer tables Motion M-289 to defer medical resident debt repayment until training is completed

OTTAWA, ON – MP Bruce Hyer (Thunder Bay-Superior North) is calling on the federal government to remove barriers to health care accessibility for rural and Northern residents. Health Canada estimated that the population-to-doctor ratio in rural Canada will swell to over three times the national average by 2020.

“All Canadians deserve adequate access to health care, no matter where they live,” said Hyer, after meeting with representatives of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) in Ottawa. “Unless something is done now, by the end of the decade rural Canadians are going to have a much harder time accessing quality care.”

In the 2011 federal Budget, a new program was announced to forgive a portion of Canada Student Loans for new family physicians working in rural and remote communities. This was a step in the right direction, but the value of this incentive is limited. New graduates must start to pay off their loans during medical residency training, before they are eligible for the loan forgiveness. Often, more than $100,000 must be borrowed to pay for studies.

CFMS President Noura Hassan said in a release “We are requesting that the government defer repayment of these loans until the completion of medical residency training. This would more effectively attract new medical graduates to rural and remote communities and better serve the needs of Canadians.”

Thunder Bay native and CFMS Representative for Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sean Bryan, said “We are fortunate to have a new medical school in Northern Ontario that is accountable to the cultural and demographic diversity of the area it serves. However, the challenge of increasing recruitment of family physicians in rural and remote areas is not unique to Northern Ontario. We must strive to ensure that the principle of accessible health care is realized throughout our country. As the national voice for Canada’s future physicians, we are calling on the government to embrace these simple, sensible strategies.”

Hyer said “I have introduced Motion M-289 in Parliament to defer the start of repayment of Canada Student Loans for medical students until the end of their training period. Because medical students from rural areas are the ones that are most likely to return to those rural areas to work – and they tend to need more loans – this simple measure will help rural Canadians have access to a doctor.”