Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Friday, February 9, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife is lucky in that our city's doctors tend to be younger, says the president of the Northwest Territories Medical Association.

"It seems the NWT has a different workforce than down south," Dr. Kami Kandola said.

"We're pretty fortunate that a lot of our physician workforce is pretty young."

Kandola is a doctor and president of the NWT branch of the Canadian Medical Association. Last week the national president of the association visited Yellowknife to listen to concerns in the territory as well as to attend seminars.

Kandola said there is concern in the south about the large proportion of aging physicians nearing retirement, fewer graduates replacing them, and the longer wait times for medical services that may result.

"What seems to attract physicians up North is the diversity," said Kandola. For example, she said here a family practice doctor could also do emergency care.

She said having representatives from the national organization visit will help spread the word about the problems doctors in the NWT are facing.

"CMA has lots of resources so they can better advocate for us," she said.

She said one of the key issues is getting physicians and nurses into the smaller communities.

"In populations of less than 3,000, how can you recruit and retain physicians?" was a question Kandola hoped the CMA could help answer.

In smaller communities like Rae, doctors and nurses visit on a rotating basis.

"As a national organization based in Ottawa we're not coming here to tell people what to do. We're here to listen," said Dr. Colin McMillan, president of the Canadian Medical Association.

McMillan practises in Charlottetown, PEI, and said he also rotates out to smaller communities.

He agreed that getting doctors out into more remote areas is a challenge.

"Studies do show that the sort of incentives you use are good to get the doctors there," he said.

However, he said keeping them there depends on more personal reasons, such as whether they fit into the community and form relationships.

He said rotating doctors and specialists in and out of the territory can help the individual physicians decide whether the NWT is the right place for them.

"A lot of them are doing locums...to figure out where they want to go," he said.

He said visiting physicians and nurses in the smaller communities should strive for consistency.

"It's more advantageous if it's done regularly and predictably and by the same individual," he said.

Ontario recently opened a new medical school in Sudbury, a smaller community in the Northern part of the province.

McMillan said the new school should help boost the number of doctors and help steer them to more remote areas.

"(Since they were) trained there and experienced there, there may be chances of them going to similar areas," he said.