New Brunswick discouraging new family doctors from practising: medical residents

FREDERICTON (CP) — New Brunswick is discouraging family physicians from practising in the province despite a growing need for care, a number of doctors in the Maritimes say.

Medical residents from throughout the region have written an open letter expressing their concerns to Premier David Alward and Health Minister Hugh Flemming.

“The roadblocks popping up for young physicians do not correspond to the patient needs in New Brunswick for doctors,” reads the letter dated Tuesday.

It is signed by a dozen chief and associate chief residents of family medicine training programs in the Maritimes that represent 141 postgraduate residents.

In their letter, the residents say there are limited job opportunities in New Brunswick for physicians who’ve completed their training in family medicine despite the thousands of people on waiting lists for family doctors.

The New Brunswick Medical Society says there are more than 50,000 people without a family doctor in the province.

Dr. Bobby Pomerleau, an assistant chief resident in Saint John who signed the letter, said the biggest issue facing new doctors is the government’s handling of socalled billing numbers.

Every physician in the province needs a billing number to get paid for delivering publicly funded health-care services. But Pomerleau says New Brunswick “micromanages” the numbers by limiting how many are issued and where.