Fredericton city council is hoping a little money will persuade two new family doctors to practise in the city.
Percentage of Fredericton-area residents with a doctor is much lower than elsewhere in N.B.
Sam Farley · CBC News
· Posted: Jan 14, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 4 hours ago
Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers says health care is not within the city’s jurisdiction, but council is willing to do what it can to help with recruitment. (Sam Farley/CBC News)
Fredericton city council is taking a new approach to recruiting family doctors.
The city will give $10,000 to the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation to create scholarships for two doctors in family medicine residencies who agree to work in Fredericton for at least a year.
The grant money approved by council Monday night won’t come directly from the city budget but from the province through the Regional Service Commission. The scholarships would start in the spring.
“We’re taking recruitment very seriously and [the scholarships] are a role that the city sees,” Mayor Kate Rogers said in an interview after the meeting.
“Clearly, there are a lot of challenges. Our region is the poorest-served as far as primary health-care physicians.”
Documents prepared by city staff say 62,000 people in the Fredericton health zone are without a family doctor.
Only 68 per cent of people in the Fredericton region have family doctors,
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