First responders in rural Newfoundland say they re not surprised by data showing deaths in the province s emergency departments jumped by 24 per cent in 2022 from the previous year.
According to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Newfoundland and Labrador, the body that licenses physicians in the province, a total of 122 family doctors in 2021 and 2022 did not renew their licence to practise. Over the same period, 115 new licences were issued.
As the province looks to Ireland and other countries for doctor recruitment, the NLMA says that local retention is also key in ongoing health-care shortages.
New statistics from the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association paint a worsening picture of the province's doctor shortage, with 26 per cent of residents without a family physician.
The association representing doctors in Newfoundland and Labrador is looking for answers after it discovered the province agreed to pay a private telemedicine company more than double what it pays family doctors for consultations.