Health region short 40% of required doctors

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This article was published 18/04/2024 (882 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Prairie Mountain Health region requires about 200 physicians — including general practitioners and hospitalists — to meet the needs of western Manitobans, but is currently 40 per cent short of that number, says CEO Treena Slate.

“We are short approximately 80 GPs and hospitalists in the entire region,” said Slate. “These numbers are subject to change. It should be noted that it is difficult to provide a firm number because of blended roles and some physicians working part-time.”

Slate was responding to questions by the Sun after Premier Wab Kinew and Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara announced a provincewide goal last week to hire 100 doctors in one year. It would represent the most substantial single-year increase in Manitoba’s history, according to Asagwara.

“To put things in perspective, last year Manitoba added only 44 doctors to our health-care system,” Asagwara said during the live news conference held at Winnipeg’s Grace Hospital.

The goal will be achieved, they added, by recruiting more physicians, retaining existing doctors and new graduates, and attracting more qualified international medical graduates.

Slate said there are numerous recruitment and retention initiatives in PMH that involve partnerships with the University of Manitoba, Brandon Regional Health Centre, Dauphin Regional Health Centre and Swan Valley Health Centre.

There are two U of M residency programs located within PMH, one based in Dauphin and one that is about to start in Neepawa in July, funded by U of M.

Rural Week in May brings first-year medical students from U of M’s Max Rady College of Medicine to Westman and gives them the opportunity to spend a full day with a rural physician.

PMH follows up with the students at the end of their experience to make sure they know about all the practice opportunities that are available in the region.

Last summer, nine medical school students who were in their fourth and fifth year of study experienced what it was like to work in a family practice in Westman. The initiative was organized by the Health Care Providers Network of Manitoba.

Other initiatives to recruit and retain health-care workers include adding physician assistants (PA) at BRHC, the hospital in Dauphin and the health centre in Swan Valley. A part-time PA is now working in Grandview and Ste. Rose.

Slate said PMH employs 29 nurse practitioners who provide service to and within 31 communities, working at personal care homes, primary care centres, the mobile clinic and the emergency department at BRHC.

“We continue to engage and support our communities through recruitment and retention grants, return of service agreements and other community-minded incentives aimed at increasing the complement of health-care professionals within our health region,” Slate wrote in an email to the Sun.

PMH currently has three return-of-service agreements with rural communities — Hamiota, Glenboro and Killarney. The agreements include contributing to the cost of hiring a recruiting firm to find international medical graduates (IMG).

Hamiota has hired the recruiting firm Waterford Global out of Winnipeg at a cost of $150,000, with PMH committed to providing $75,000, Hamiota Mayor Randy Lints told the Sun.

The same recruiter found an IMG for the Municipality of Killarney-Turtle Mountain, said Mayor Janice Smith.

A physician, his wife and five children from Nottingham, England, are expected to arrive in August after signing the return-of-service agreement.

This will be the second time Killarney has found success with the recruiting firm. In 2016, it secured two doctors for the community at a cost of $240,000, with about half that amount covered by the health region.

“I am a huge advocate of this process and working with Prairie Mountain Health. They’ve been wonderful,” said Smith. “And actually, this council has put doctor recruitment as a line in our budget, because we’re never going to stop recruiting.”

When asked if Smith was confident in the calibre of international medical graduates, she said, “Absolutely without question,” adding it’s because of the trust in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba.

CPSM promotes the safe and ethical delivery of quality care, and registers and regulates physicians who are licensed to practice medicine in the province.

Dr. Anna Ziomek, the registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, told the Sun in an email that Manitoba is the only province that has a one-year training program for IMG.

Other provinces have assessment programs, she said, but the one established in Manitoba allows for expanding skills, establishing relationships, and possible mentorship opportunities that will be important in the transition to rural practice.

Ziomek said they work closely with the regional health authorities, Shared Health and government to make sure physicians wanting to practise medicine in Manitoba are qualified to do so safely. While not responsible for human resource recruiting, she said it’s often not just about the physician.

“It often entails finding appropriate employment opportunities for spouse, educational opportunities for children, as well as housing opportunities,” Ziomek said.

“Practising in a rural community may be isolating, especially if you are the only physician. Physicians practise best in group practices where there can be a sharing of learnings and difficulties as they occur,” she said.

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