ST. STEPHEN, N.B.
— New Brunswick’s Liberals are pledging to overhaul the way the province recruits health professionals should the party win the Oct. 21 provincial election. Leader Susan Holt, campaigning Tuesday in St.
Stephen, N.B., said the party would change the compensation model for doctors and increase the number of residency spaces for doctors in training.
The Liberal plan also promises to streamline the process for recognizing the credentials of foreign-trained doctors and other health professionals. Though she released few other details, Holt said 10 additional physician training seats at Dalhousie University in Halifax would cost $430,000 each year. “We need to innovate in how we recruit health-care professionals," Holt said.
"A centralized departmental model that continues to focus on vacancies instead of health-care professionals hasn’t worked." She said the recruitment plan includes calling on local communities and health professionals to help with presenting offers that might appeal to individual doctors and other health professionals. "When we identify a health professional that wants to practise in New Brunswick, we find the role that fits them — we don’t try to fit them into our box," Holt told reporters.
"We need to make sure we are tailoring our offer to what the health-care professionals want to do to be here, and we have to employ a team of people to do it." Holt said the Liberal recruitment program would also do a better job of tracking the.