The right tools, technology required to retain doctors

“It’s heartbreaking for the Westman area. All of our governments have failed rural Manitoba when it comes to health care, and we deserve better.”

— Brandon-area resident Michelle Budiwski

The provincial government’s habit of celebrating recruitment numbers while ignoring systemic failures has reached a critical breaking point, as illustrated by the loss of Dr. Brady Anderson from the Western Manitoba Cancer Centre.

Manitoba has made some encouraging progress in addressing its doctor shortage. But attracting more physicians to the province will accomplish only so much if the health-care system can’t give them the tools, technology and working conditions they need to do their jobs.

A new report from Doctors Manitoba suggests the province is making progress in growing its physician workforce. But serious gaps remain. The organization’s annual Physicians in Manitoba report contains some welcome news. The province now has a record number of physicians practising here, with 235 doctors per 100,000 residents.

That’s getting closer to the national average of 245.

The overall physician shortage has also been cut nearly in half from its peak three years ago, when Manitoba needed 445 additional doctors to reach the national average. It now needs 229.

That’s meaningful progress and the provincial government’s recruitment efforts deserve some credit. Its physician recruitment office has helped bring 137 doctors to Manitoba since 2024.

But the report also exposes a troubling weakness in the province’s health-care strategy. More than 90 per cent of Manitoba’s doctor shortage involves specialists. The province is short 217 of them, contributing to delays in consultations, diagnostic testing and surgeries.

One of the reasons specialists are reluctant to practise here is that Manitoba is falling behind in medical technology. As Doctors Manitoba spokesperson Keir Johnson put it, physicians are trained in the medicine of today but arrive in Manitoba to find the tools of yesterday. That’s a damning assessment of a health-care system that is supposed to provide modern, high-quality care.

Consider robotic surgery. Manitoba has just one surgical robot, which must be shared among several medical specialties. Other provinces have invested in more equipment, allowing their specialists greater access to the technology.

There are several Manitoba urologists trained to use robotic surgery, but limited access means procedures can’t be scheduled as efficiently as they could be. The technology can also reduce operating times and shorten patient recovery periods, potentially freeing up hospital beds.

But doctors need access to that technology. When specialists don’t have adequate equipment, the consequences extend beyond recruitment. Patients wait longer, hospital resources are tied up and some people eventually leave the province to seek treatment elsewhere. The shortages are particularly concerning in fields such as emergency medicine, cardiology, vascular surgery, radiology, pathology, nuclear medicine and geriatrics. An aging population will only increase demand for many of those services.

Yet the human cost of this neglect is no longer an abstract statistic — the reality is unfolding in rural Manitoba. The impending departure of Dr. Brady Anderson, the sole medical oncologist practising outside of Winnipeg at the Western Manitoba Cancer Centre in Brandon, is a perfect example of this crisis.

Dr. Anderson chose to leave his role after years of strongly advocating to medical leadership for sustainable working conditions. He was repeatedly denied the additional staff, supports, and fair compensation required to keep his practice viable. This is exactly how shortcomings in our medical system break the morale of exceptional physicians.

Patients like Lesa Carey and Michelle Budiwski describe Dr. Anderson as a life-saving, compassionate specialist who went “over and above” to shield them from his struggles. When the province refused to cover Carey’s critical genetic testing, Dr. Anderson personally found a University of Toronto study to fund it.

Yet the government and health leadership chose to let a local specialist burn out rather than provide basic operational resources.

Recruitment efforts are important, but the province also needs to pay closer attention to retaining the doctors it already has. Doctors Manitoba estimates that 658 physicians are considering retirement or leaving the province over the next three years. That’s a significant potential loss, particularly when 158 doctors already left Manitoba during the last fiscal year, up from 138 the year before.

Even more concerning, only 63 per cent of medical residents who completed their training in Manitoba are still practising here five years later. The national average is 73 per cent. That should be a wake-up call. Manitoba is training doctors, but too many are deciding to build their careers somewhere else.

Doctors Manitoba points to administrative burdens, excessive paperwork, inadequate team-based care and shortcomings in equipment and facilities as factors contributing to that decision. Those are not minor workplace irritants. They affect morale, productivity and the quality of care physicians can provide.

When specialized care leaves rural centres like Brandon, it creates massive geographic and financial inequities.

Patients are left wondering if they must repeatedly endure the two-hour trek to Winnipeg for life-saving treatments while compromised by radiation and illness. CancerCare Manitoba’s generic assurances that another oncologist will arrive to “rinse and repeat” the cycle do little to soothe a heartbroken community that has to resort to launching online petitions for structural change.

The government cannot solve every problem overnight, and it shouldn’t be expected to. But it needs a much more comprehensive approach than simply showing up in Brandon to announce recruitment initiatives and celebrating increases in physician numbers.

Until our leadership addresses burnout, inadequate compensation, and poor regional support, Manitoba will continue to lose the expertise of its finest doctors — leaving vulnerable patients to pay the price.

» Winnipeg Free Press & The Brandon Sun