Doctors Manitoba visits the Southeast, hears from doctors

Doctors Manitoba visited the Southeast last week on a tour to hear directly from doctors as to what the main issues are in healthcare.

“In terms of some of the challenges, recruitment and retention is the big topic. I think it’s a big topic for all physicians but particularly here (in Steinbach)…,” said Dr. Randy Guzman, president of Doctors Manitoba.

“Manitoba is second lowest in the country and lowest in terms of family docs and third most in terms of specialists, so we have a lot of work to do there. Less physicians means more workload for the ones that are remaining, which means more administrative burden and challenges in terms of burnout and retention. I think that’s a big issue here as it is elsewhere.”

Between May 1, 2023, and April 30, 2024, Manitoba recorded 3,334 physicians working in the province. When compared to per capita, the number of physicians rose by two percent per year which was the biggest increase among all provinces.

“This means that Manitoba has a shortage of 346 doctors. Still a major shortage but a significant improvement of last year’s report of 445 doctors. This positive news suggests that Manitoba maybe turning the corner,” said Guzman during a November 2024 interview with The Carillon.

Doctors Manitoba visited hospitals in Steinbach, Ste Anne, and St Pierre-Jolys. Guzman said the province is trying to address the issues of recruitment and retention by opening more seats for medical students at the university level, having opened 125 this year and 140 next year.

Some other initiatives are focusing on team-based care to support family doctors with nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants that allow doctors to see more patients. Another is reducing the administrative burden by eliminating sick notes, which Guzman said would be “a real bonus with minimal costs.” Another initiative is having a nurse practitioner in the emergency room to support doctors, which Guzman called an “easy fix.”

From talking to one doctor at the Bethesda Regional Health Centre, Guzman learned that in the 35 years that that doctor has been working there, the hospital has always been understaffed. When asked if the issue is medical students don’t want to work in rural centres, Guzman said the issue is not that they don’t want to work in rural areas rather they need to be exposed to rural family medicine.

“I think if we are able to recruit locally, (it’ll) be beneficial in the long run. If you have Manitobans coming through that stream they’re more likely to stay, obviously. I think that’s one of the issues certainly. It’s just really increasing the exposure to the family rural medicine life and benefits.”

Guzman noted that compensation is one way to retain doctors in rural areas. Another is work environment. “The people that you’re working with, the team that supports you, the community that you’re serving. All those things are important.”

The province announced during the release of their budget that they are investing $48.2 million to train more health professionals amid $770 million in new funding to recruit and retain front-line staff.

“I was actually at the (provincial) budget (announcement) and I can certainly say that we were encouraged to see continued investment on recruitment for healthcare professionals including physicians, which is a deep concern for us,” said Doctors Manitoba CEO Theresa Oswald. “We know that we had 138 net new physicians last year which is great. That’s down to the largest increases ever but we’re still between 300 and 400 doctors short of just meeting the Canadian average for physicians per capita.”

Doctors Manitoba’s next stop is Selkirk.