University of Manitoba program produces 19 new doctors

Manitoba has 19 new family physicians who have graduated from a one-year program for internationally trained doctors today.

The graduates of the University of Manitoba's Medical Licensure Program for International Medical Graduates took the Hippocratic Oath during a ceremony on Tuesday.

The program is designed so doctors were trained in medical schools outside Canada can practise in the province, especially in underserved areas such as rural and remote communities.

Graduates of the program will work in those communities — including Thompson, Swan River, Pine Falls and Garden Hill — for four years as part of their return to service agreement.

Among the new graduates is Dr. Chona Lim, who came to Canada from the Philippines in 2008 and will go to Garden Hill to practise medicine.

Lim told CBC News she recognizes that Garden Hill is an isolated community that is accessible mainly by plane, but she looks forward to the challenge.

"I like challenges. I am a very open person, open-minded; I blend in very easy. I don't think I will have any issues," she said.

​"Being a family doctor, I wanted to bring preventative medicine — any small thing I can do for the community. I am there 100 per cent." 

She added that while she'll be travelling back and forth between Garden Hill and Winnipeg, where her husband will stay, she hopes to remain in Garden Hill after her four-year commitment ends.

Dr. Chidinma Ota, 30, a family doctor who was trained in Nigeria and came to Canada three years ago, will practise medicine in Pine Falls, Man.

"I'm a small-town girl back in Nigeria, so I think I can bring the small-town sense of community that also happens here," she said.

"I think if a place gives you everything you need and you are comfortable, why not settle there? It's definitely something I would consider for sure."