Government to Recognize Family Medicine as a Specialty

The Provincial Government has announced that it intends to work with the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association to begin the process of recognizing family medicine as a specialty area.

It's a move that would recognize that family doctors are highly skilled, educated, and dedicated health care providers, emphasize the importance of primary care to overall health and to the sustainability of the province’s health system, and reward the time, patient complexity, and administrative work that family doctors manage.

The current Memorandum of Understanding with the NLMA was signed in September 2025 and included an increase of 17.5 percent for family medicine and a total for all physicians amounting to $240 million over the four-year life of the agreement. The next negotiations will begin in June 2027.