More doctors hanging shingle in province

We’re also seeing more of our grads staying in province. That’s really exciting.

The number of doctors in Saskatchewan is increasing, but it’s still tough to find a woman physician.

There were 2,282 doctors in the province last year, up 1.8 per cent from the previous year, according to Physicians in Canada, 2016 — a new report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

The increase of doctors in the province was more marked between 2012 and 2016, when the total number of physicians in the province increased 16.1 per cent — from 179 doctors per 100,000 people to 197 per 100,000 people.

“It’s been fairly steady growth over the last five years, which has been interesting relative to the rest of the country,” said Geoff Ballinger, CIHI’s manager of physician information.

Dr. Joanne Sivertson, president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association, attributes the increased number of physicians in the province in part to the concentrated efforts of the Physician Recruitment Agency of Saskatchewan.

“We’re also seeing more of our grads staying in province,” Sivertson said.

“That’s really exciting because we know that homegrown physicians are more likely to stick around and continue to be not only recruited, but be retained in the province.”

Between 2015 and 2016, there was an increase of 28 doctors in Saskatchewan who came from Canadian faculties of medicine and an increase of 20 who were trained outside of Canada, Ballinger said.

He noted Saskatchewan has the highest proportion of foreigntrained physicians in the country.

“In 2016, it was about 52 per cent of physicians who were trained outside of the country,” Ballinger said.

While the overall number of physicians increased, Saskatchewan was among three provinces reporting the lowest percentages of women doctors in their workforce (34.7 per cent).

Only Prince Edward Island was lower at 30.6 per cent.