Calling new family doctors: Alberta's rural health program wants to give you up to $100K incentive pay

Almost a year after it announced $6 million in funding for a return-of-service program to entice medical graduates to underserved rural communities, the Alberta government has finalized the details and opened up the program for applications. The Rural Education Supplement and Integrated Doctor Experience—or RESIDE for short—program launched on Feb. 1 with a plan to provide $2 million each year for 20 new family doctors, to a total of 60 doctors over three years. “That’s the plan but there is some flexibility with the numbers,” Steve Buick, press secretary for the province’s Health Ministry, told The Medical Post. “The specifics in each year will depend on the uptake.” This year’s successful applicants could start work as early as this fall, according to an announcement on the province’s website. Application deadline in 2022 is March 31, and new applicants will be accepted each year for the next three years. Read: Patient dies while waiting for treatment in central Alberta hospital emergency ward Of the total $6 million in funding, $3.6 million is earmarked as undergraduate tuition fee reimbursement, with each of the 60 doctors eligible for $60,000. A remote community incentive ranging from $20,000 to $40,000—depending on how remote—will also be given to each successful applicant. In return, doctors must commit to three years of service in their chosen community. The launch comes as the province negotiates with the Alberta Medical Association on a new agreement. The bargaining parties—which include the AMA, Alberta Health, Alberta Health Services and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta—made some progress last month with changes to virtual billing to allow for, among other things, longer visits and for time spent on indirect care such as charting and completing referrals. To be eligible, applicants must be a family medicine resident physician completing their training this year and express interest in practising in rural Alberta, the province’s Health Minister Jason Copping said during a press conference on Feb. 1. “They will be asked to choose their top 10 communities and will then be matched to a community based on the best fit for available vacancies,” he added. This year’s applicants will be asked to choose from 15 communities that include Fox Creek, Grande Cache, Fort Vermilion, Wabasca, High Level, Rimbey, Lloydminster, Milk River, Cold Lake, Lac La Biche, Rocky Mountain House, Fort Macleod, Barrhead, Ponoka, and Athabasca. “A total of 60 new family physicians are eligible for incentives for the program over the next three years,” Copping stated. He adds family physicians who choose to work in specific communities will also be eligible for $60,000 for undergrad tuition fee reimbursement, as well a remote community incentive which is said will range from $20,000 to $40,000, depending on the community’s remoteness. The 15 communities identified for the program in 2022 include Fox Creek, Grande Cache, Fort Vermilion, Wabasca, High Level, Rimbey, Lloydminster, Milk River, Cold Lake, Lac La Biche, Rocky Mountain House, Fort Macleod, Barrhead, Ponoka, and Athabasca. “They (the physician) will be asked to choose their top 10 communities and will then be matched to a community based on the best fit for available vacancies,” added Copping. Read: 'We're begging': Leaf Rapids sends cry for help to fix healthcare in the nort

Calling new family doctors: Alberta's rural health program wants to give you up to $100K incentive pay

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