Requiring graduates of the Northern Medical Program to practice in Northern B.C. for a period of time is going a step too far in Dr. David Snadden's opinion.
Snadden, University of Northern British Columbia's vice-provost for medicine, said Wednesday that so-called "return of service contracts" may work in the short run but not so much over a longer period.
"What happens is that somebody might go into a community for two or three years in a return for service and then they're gone," Snadden said.
Just five of the 23 students from the first class in 2008 are now practicing in Northern B.C., prompting NDP health critic Mike Farnworth to suggest students sign contracts committing them to work in the region.
But looked at it another way, 50 per cent of the 10 who went on to two-year residencies for family practice are practicing in Northern B.C. while the remaining 13 are pursuing specialties which take a minimum of five years residency.
Snadden expects a substantial portion of those 13 will return to Northern B.C. upon completing their residencies although they may spend a few more years elsewhere improving their skills and deciding where they want to practice.
"It's not an end-of-graduate training, you're into practice environment anymore," Snadden said.
He said the Northern Medical Program relies on finding the right students.
"We're continuing to really work on our admissions processes because we still very firmly believe that we need to get the right people, so we keep tweaking that," Snadden said. "And we're very happy with the way it's working.
"The class we've just entered is mostly from rural origins, from all around B.C. and other bits of Canada, but mostly rural origins, so it's worked well in that."
