NL Health Services Welcomes 25 New Physicians in First Quarter

Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) Health Services is pleased to welcome 25 new physicians to the organization between January 1 and April 1, 2024. The physicians are located throughout the province and work in a range of specialties including family medicine (such as family care teams), hematopathology, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, psychiatry, obstetrics/gynecology, general surgery, pathology and orthopedics. 

“We are excited to welcome these new physicians within NL Health Services,” said David Diamond, CEO, NL Health Services. “We are continuing to see the results of our recruitment activities to provide comprehensive health-care services to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. These recruitment efforts will result in lower wait-times for many services, provide much-needed primary care for many areas of our province and ensure we are offering the best care possible to our patients, clients, residents and their families.” 

NL Health Services successfully recruited these physicians with the support of various provincial government recruitment and incentive programs including: 

• the Come Home Incentive, 
• the Physician Signing Bonus,  
• the Family Practice Start-up Program, and 
• the physician recruitment incentive pilot for full-time commitment to primary care or emergency department coverage in select geographic locations including rural areas. 

Physicians are employed with a return in service agreement that ensures that they provide full-time practice for five years to be eligible for incentives. These physicians were recruited from Memorial University of Newfoundland’s (MUN) Faculty of Medicine, other parts of Canada, and internationally through recruitment events held locally and outside the province as well as virtual career fairs geared towards recruitment of international physicians in participation with the provincial government. 

“NL Health Services works together across program areas and all zones to ensure that physicians are placed in the areas of greatest need and in relation to the physician’s requirements,” said Dr. Gena Bugden, Vice-President of Medical Services, NL Health Services. “In addition, we work closely with communities to highlight the opportunities that exist in all regions of our province for career advancement as well showcase to physicians the benefits of living in our province. Recruitment efforts continue and we are looking forward to welcoming more physicians in the future.” 

The recruitment and retention of physicians throughout the province is a key focus for NL Health Services and is essential for the stability of the health-care system. Recruitment activities continue by a fully staffed provincial recruitment team with a mandate to proactively identify physicians and other hard-to-fill health-care positions for the province.  The NL Health Services’ physician recruitment teams throughout the province proactively and strategically work to find physicians from within Canada as well as other countries that may allow for easier licensing to practice in this province such as the United States of America, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Australia.  

In addition to the recruitment of these 25 new physicians in the first three months of the year, NL Health Services recently announced that it has also been successful in its recruitment of nurses. The health-care system has welcomed 156 internationally educated nurses who are now licenced as RNs or LPNs, complementing over 300 recent nursing graduates from local nursing schools who have been hired and are starting work with NL Health Services since the end of April.   

NL Health Services is a desirable place to work and staff members are part of interdisciplinary teams, have access to state-of-the-art equipment and modern facilities. The provincial health authority is also committed to supporting its people and teams by providing collaborative, safe, respectful, inclusive, supportive work environments and respecting and encouraging work-life balance. For more information on working with NL Health Services, please visit https://workinhealthnl.ca/. 

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