SHERBROOKE, Que. - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is promising to create a $420-million fund to increase the number of health-care professionals and improve access to medical services.
The plan would boost training capacity, ease the foreign credentials process, and reward medical students studying under-manned specialties like geriatrics and family medicine.
It would also provide incentives for doctors to work in small communities.
Dion says too many Canadians are without a family doctor at a time when an aging populace is only going to increase demand.
And he says a shortage of nurses is affecting wait times for emergency care and important diagnoses.
On Tuesday, Dion promised to help with costs for catastrophic drugs.
The Liberal announcement comes two days after NDP Leader Jack Layton made a similar proposal.
On Monday, Layton announced a $1-billion proposal to increase the number of training spaces for doctors and nurses by 50 per cent over five years.
