The provincial government has announced for the budget year of 2010/11 it will set up an organization to guide doctor recruitment and retention efforts in the province.
Run by an appointed board, and funded this first year to the tune of $3.5 million, the body has hired its first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in the form of Edward Mantler.
Mantler, who has more than 20 years experience in the field of healthcare service delivery, was previously working as an executive with a hospital in Edmonton, AB.
While this is Mantler's first time working in Saskatchewan, he suggests that he will be looking forward to applying his skills and experience in alleviating the doctor shortage that faces the province.
"The problems the province is facing regarding doctor shortages, especially in rural centres, is one that is shared right across the country at this time," Mantler said. "Alberta faced the same problem, and a number of different systems were adopted to try and solve the problem."
Besides recruiting new blood doctors to the province, the agency which Mantler will be leading day-to-day is also tasked with improving the retention rate of doctors, especially graduating physicians from the University of Saskatoon, the provinces only medical school.
"We have located our headquarters actually on the grounds of the school to increase our ability to keep contact with the students and interns through the year," Mantler said. "One of our major focuses for the near future is to improve our retention of graduating doctors. We want to make sure that they feel that staying to practice in Saskatchewan is a viable option for them, and that they would be welcome to practice just about anywhere they might be interested in."
The board under which Mantler will be working was appointed late in the spring of this year, and now that Mantler has been taken on, the body plans on moving ahead quickly.
"There are consultations with various bodies underway, and we plan on more consultations in the near future," Mantler said. "We are presently collecting data and information while we put together a rough plan for how we will operate into the future."
"Our hope is that through these consultations, and with the appropriate data, we will be able to start a concentrated program soon," Mantler said. "Once this period is complete we will be able to identify the priority areas we need to focus on. We hope to have all this ready to go at some time in the autumn."
As for long range planning, Mantler has a vision of what he hopes the body will develop into in the future.
"I see us acting as a coordinating body, working with various stakeholders and other organizations like community recruitment bodies to improve the recruitment and retention numbers for the province right across the board," Mantler said. "We will also have a role acting as a central information centre for incoming physicians about opportunities and community information."
"We understand and value the input of the community efforts at recruitment that have been going on throughout the province to date," Mantler said. "And I believe that they have some important views and methods that we will be able to make use of as we move forward in developing the organization."
