Yukon doctors push for rural medicine residency program

The Yukon Medical Association (YMA) is pushing for the territory to help develop a residency program for family doctors in rural communities.

The association, which represents the territory's doctors, passed a resolution this past weekend at itsannual general meeting, calling on the Yukon government to put "substantial additional funding" in its next budget for the program.

According to Dr. Derek Bryant, who took over as head of the YMAon the weekend, it would be a way to increase the number of doctors working in the territory.

"We would be planting a seed that would bear fruit in the future," Bryant said. "I think fiveyears from now,if we don't plant the seed, we'll be looking back and wondering where all the fruit is."

According to a recent report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the proportionof Yukonerswho have access to a "regular health care provider" was about 78 per cent, which is lower than most provinces, and the national average of 83 per cent.

The data also show that Yukon has fewer doctors per capita than the national average, Bryantsaid.

"So there's very clearly a problem there that needs to be solved," Bryant said.

"I think that every jurisdiction in Canada is struggling with this exact same problem and they're all sort of scrambling to bring in family doctors."

He argues that a family medicine residency program would allow med school graduates to come live and work in the Yukon and "understand the unique challenges of remote care and the unique needs of of our Indigenous population."

Dr. Alexander Kmet, Bryant's predecessoras president of the YMA, agreed that physician recruitment and retention should be a key priority for the territory, and that a family medicine residency program could help.

"I don't think we've made as much progress on recruitment as our territory needs," he said.

He also highlighted reconciliation as a key priority for Yukon's health-care system and argued that the residency program could also help address that.

"That's something that, from the outset, we're looking to co-create as much as possible, the medical education curriculum with our local First Nations," Kmet said.

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