Deal with U of S targets doctor recruitment, retention in south

College of Medicine official sees growth opportunities at school’s Regina campus

The University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine has entered into a formal 10-year agreement with the Regina Qu’Appelle Regional Health Authority to further develop its Regina campus.

With approximately 40 per cent of all second-, third- and fourthyear undergraduate medical students taking their training in Regina, Dr. Preston Smith, dean of medicine, says the campus has become a significant part of the college. The formal agreement represents a renewed commitment between the longtime partners to support the Regina campus.

Currently Regina has residency programs in family medicine, psychiatry, internal medicine and obstetrics, but Smith says there is room to grow the program.

“We’d like to work with the faculty here to develop more research. We’d like to see eventually more residency programs in other specialties ... with the goal of getting more doctors recruited to Regina and to the south of the province,” said Smith. “We know from the literature that people settle where they train.”

Recruiting and retaining U of S medicine graduates in southern Saskatchewan is one of the main goals of the agreement. Smith said university cuts in the most recent provincial budget have the college looking for efficiencies in order to cut costs, but programming in Regina will not be affected.

Additionally, the amalgamation of Saskatchewan’s 12 health regions into one health authority will not affect the agreement, said Keith Dewar, president and CEO of Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region. The announcement that the head office is to be located in Saskatoon may have had people nervous that investments into the Regina campus may take a back seat, but Dewar said the agreement proves otherwise.

“Regardless of where the head office is, there’s still a ... recognition of the importance of our campus,” said Dewar.