Medical school graduates from the southwest corner of Manitoba where the pain of the doctor shortage is acute have been denied residency in their own province, partially because they travelled outside the country to get their education.

There are as many as four people in the area in the same situation, and for the last four years, there has been a trained doctor working in a secretarial position at the Virden medical clinic.

Theyre sitting here, wanting to be able to practise ... and yet (they) cant get her a residency spot, said Virden physician Dr. Jennifer Hammell.

Potential resident physicians across the country apply for spots through the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS), which splits applicants into two streams: Canadian-trained and internationally trained. More residency spots are open to Canadian-trained doctors.

With as many as 40 specialized and family doctors needed in the Prairie Mountain Health region, Hammell said its an easy fix: the province needs to increase the number of residency spots and CaRMS needs to create a separate stream for Canadian doctors who have been internationally trained.

If the number of residency spots increased in the province, within two years, they are a practising doctor and the more residents you have, the more hands you have to see patients, Hammell said.

In 2013, the province did add rural residency training positions, including five in the northern and remote residency stream, four first-year medical residency training positions in Brandon, two in Morden-Winkler, two in Steinbach and two in Portage la Prairie.

However, its important to note that decisions on filling residencies are made by medical schools with a view to matching competencies and medical needs across the country, a Manitoba health spokesperson said in an email.

In addition, physicians choose where they practise, and may decide to work elsewhere upon graduation.

One doctor born and raised in the southwest corner of the province, who wants to eventually practise to help fill the dire need for doctors in the area was not accepted into any Manitoba residency.

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Westman doctors denied residency at home