The province is expected to roll out a new strategy for attracting and retaining physicians in rural Manitoba this fiscal year.

Last month, the province announced it was eliminating a program that gave medical students grants in each of their four years of medical school if they'd establish a practice in a rural community after graduating.

"That may be years from now, and maybe they do or maybe they don't come back and work in Manitoba," said Premier Brian Pallister. "The program just wasn't delivering on the promise of providing us with better physician availability and so for that reason, we are looking at another way of doing things that will work."

Health officials agree that it can take between five to eight years before a student is qualified to provide services, and there is no guarantee a student will choose a needed practice area at the end of their training.
    
Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said surveys conducted among doctors found that financial considerations were low on the list of reasons why they wanted to stay in a particular location.

"We have to, not just recruit doctors, but we have to retain doctors," said Pallister. "It's fine to say that we've got a doctor in town but if that doctor is gone in two years that's not really what any of us want. We understand the importance of having a relationship with our physician and the people who advise us."

Health minister Goertzen has given few details of their proposed plan at this point but indicated the program will be more coordinated, and won't pit rural regional health authorities against each other in their search for doctors.