Scott Crabbe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 14/00) - Co-ordinating doctors' contracts throughout the North could be one way to address an acute shortage and high turnover of physicians, says Health Minister Jane Groenewegen.

Groenewegen made the statement at the annual NWT Medical Association meeting -- where the issue was top priority -- held Feb. 5 in Yellowknife.

"Finding physicians to come North is one challenge," said Groenewegen.

"Providing a practice environment that will keep them here is another."

Groenewegen expressed an interest in providing a co-ordinated, unified approach to contract negotiations with NWT physicians.

Physicians' contracts are currently negotiated on an individual basis between groups of physicians and their regional health boards. She said that results in inequities and unnecessary tensions across the system.

"The current differences in approaches to physician compensation across the NWT are destabilizing and must be addressed," she said.

Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Hugh Scully reiterated concerns about a shortage of doctors nation-wide.

"We must continue to focus on the crisis in the physician workforce," Scully said at the meeting, "And initiate measures to stall the consequences of an increasing shortage."

According to a 1996 Manpower/NWT Medical Association study, 26 full-time physicians are required to provide proper medical care to residents of the Northwest Territories. There are currently 14 physicians serving 42,000 people, a ratio of one doctor to 1,200 patients.