MCNEIL WANTS A DOCTOR FOR EVERY NOVA SCOTIAN FAMILY
Date: Friday September 18, 2009

(Halifax, NS) Liberal leader Stephen McNeil introduced legislation
today that would offer free tuition to medical students who commit to
practice in under-serviced areas of the province.

The bill would see the government cover the tuition of 20 medical
students per year for five years and as McNeil sees it, one hundred new
doctors would go a long way to solve the province’s doctor shortage.

“We know medical students graduate with enormous debts and some
choose to move to other jurisdictions to pay them off quickly,” says
McNeil. “But many of those doctors want to stay in Nova Scotia. This
legislation would allow them to do that.”

The previous Conservative government partially adopted the Liberal plan
by extending tuition support to ten medical school students; McNeil
believes the full program must be implemented in order to combat Nova
Scotia’s doctor shortage.

“The NDP government needs to recognize that more must be done to keep
physicians in our province,” says McNeil. “Fifty thousand Nova
Scotians don’t have a doctor and with a host of doctors set to retire,
that number will grow dramatically.”

When this Liberal bill was first introduced in 2008, NDP health critic
of the day Dave Wilson stated during second reading that his party
supported the legislation. McNeil is counting on that NDP support to get
the bill passed.

“This bill will inject 100 doctors into a starving healthcare system
using resources that already exist in the province,” the Liberal
leader states. “Our plan also provides a boost to those communities in
Nova Scotia that face challenges in doctor recruitment.”

“This idea is not just about keeping our ERs open today - it’s
about finding a cure for tomorrow.”

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