Retention Programs

Physician retention is a priority for the Ontario government. We are working to make Ontario the clear choice for a fully realized medical career through:

• high-quality education programs
• incentives for those who practise in underserviced areas
• retraining programs
• rewarding work environments

Underserviced Area Program
The Underserviced Area Program (UAP) helps underserviced communities recruit and retain health professionals to enhance access to healthcare.

Designated underserviced areas have access to the UAP's recruitment and retention benefits. Some of the program components are:

• Community Assessment Visit Program
  Reimburses health care professionals and their spouses for travel and accommodation expenses when they explore practise opportunities in the province’s underserviced communities.
  
• Physician Outreach Program for General/Family Practitioners  
  The goal of this program is to provide regularly scheduled primary care clinics to outlying communities with Underserviced Area Program (UAP)-funded nursing stations or medical clinics. As well, the program provides direct, 24-hour emergency physician backup to the nurse/nurse practitioner working in UAP nursing stations/clinics.
  
• Respite Locum Tenens Program for Specialists  
  Provides specialist coverage to communities in the North who have a full complement of physicians in a given specialty but where one of the specialist physicians is on holidays or educational leave. The locum specialists must live and practice at least 40 kilometres away. Northern Ontario is defined as the territorial districts of Algoma, Cochrane, Kenora, Manitoulin, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Rainy River, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Timiskaming.
  
• Urgent Locum Tenens Program for Specialists   
  Provides specialist coverage to communities in the North that do not have a full complement of physicians in a given specialty but are actively recruiting to fill the positions. The locum specialists must live and practice at least 40 kilometres away. Northern Ontario is defined as the territorial districts of Algoma, Cochrane, Kenora, Manitoulin, Nipissing, Parry Sound, Rainy River, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Timiskaming.
  
• Free Tuition Program for Physicians
  Provides $40,000, paid over four years,  to final-year medical students, residents and newly graduated physicians to offset tuition costs, in exchange for a full-time return-of-service (service in a community for a designated amount of time) in an eligible community. To be eligible for the program, applicants must have graduated from a Canadian medical school and be in a ministry-funded residency Program. Return-of-service opportunities exist across the province from Kenora to Windsor.
  
• Incentive Grant Programs
  Health care professionals relocating to designated underserviced communities may be eligible to apply for one of the following incentive grants:
         
  - Incentive grants of up to $40,000, paid over four years, for general/family practitioners and psychiatrists who relocate to designated northern communities
  
  - Incentive grants of up to $15,000, paid over four years for general/family practitioners who relocate to designated southern communities
  
  - Incentive grants of up to $20,000, paid over four years, for specialists who relocate to designated northern communities; a second grant of $20,000, again paid over four years, under the Northern Medical Specialist Incentive Program for northern specialists who provide a minimum of 12 days of outreach services per year
  
  - Incentive grants of up to $15,000, paid over three years, for audiologists, chiropodists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech-language pathologists who relocate to fill positions in full-time, MOHLTC-funded vacancies in Northern Ontario

For more information on the Underserviced Area Program, please call 705 564-7280, toll-free 1-866-727-9959, fax 705 564-7493 or write to:

Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
Primary Health Care Team
Underserviced Area Program
159 Cedar Street, Suite 402
Sudbury  ON  P3E 6A5

HealthForceOntario Northern and Rural Recruitment and Retention Initiative (NRRR Initiative)
The NRRR Initiative will provide grants to physicians and new physician graduates who agree to practise in a northern or highly rural community or in one of the five major northern urban referral centres (Thunder Bay, Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins).

HealthForceOntario Postgraduate Return of Service Program
The ROS Program will enable all communities in Ontario (except the Toronto area and Ottawa) to recruit Canadian graduates and international medical graduates (who received medical training outside Canada) who have to fulfill return of service (ROS) commitments. Under ROS commitments, physicians agree to work for a designated period of time in a particular location in exchange for a postgraduate training opportunity in Ontario.

Interprofessional Care/Education Fund
The Interprofessional Care/Education Fund is a funding program that will provide support to innovative health education or health care projects that foster and build interprofessional teams. For the purpose of this program, interprofessional initiatives are defined as the provision of comprehensive health services to patients by multiple health caregivers who are training for or trained to work collaboratively to deliver the best quality of care in every health setting. Interprofessional care encompasses partnership, collaboration and a multi-disciplinary approach to enhancing care outcomes.

Interprofessional Health Education Innovation Fund
This fund is for post-secondary institutions to address key issues related to interprofessional education and to promote collaborative patient-centred practice. 

Re-Entry Program
Twenty third-year family medicine re-entry training positions and 20 specialty re-entry training positions are available in this program to practicing Canadian physicians. 

Repatriation Program: Additional Postgraduate Medical Training Positions in Ontario
In this program, Residency positions are available for physicians who:

• are graduates of Canadian, international or U.S. medical schools
• have completed post-graduate residency training, and
• require no more than two years of additional training to meet the certification requirements of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC). 

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