Latest news with #DoctorsManitoba
CBC
3 days ago
- Health
- CBC
Doctors Manitoba cheers changes to help U.S. physicians relocate to province
Regulatory changes intended to make it easier for U.S.-based physicians to relocate and practice in Manitoba are being loudly applauded by an advocacy group in the province. "We're really excited about it. Manitoba has one of the worst doctor shortages in the country, and as practising physicians, we see the consequences of this every day," said Doctors Manitoba president Nichelle Desilets. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba and the provincial government recently took steps to streamline the process for qualified physicians from the United States to be granted a full licence to practice in the province, provided they meet certain requirements. They have to first complete an accredited residency program, have certification from the American Board of Medical Specialists and have a licence from a U.S. state medical board. "The training that American physicians undergo is very similar to a Canadian physician. I would even say nearly identical," said Desilets, who practises in Neepawa. "There is much more in common than there is different." Processes the government and college have agreed to remove include things like requiring supervisors and formal assessments, and restrictions on where a new doctor can practise — which can all be costly and time-consuming. Doctors Manitoba advocated for such changes more than a year ago, Desilets said. "Manitoba has been behind in making these changes, so it's really great to see that we're catching up on that," Desilets said. B.C., Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. have already simplified the process, she said. It's also important to underscore the fact that none of the changes will compromise the quality of patient care, she said. "The public should still be reassured that there is still a rigorous process making sure that every doctor that practises in Manitoba is qualified to do so and has been vetted by our college." The province has also followed the lead of Doctors Manitoba by launching recruitment campaigns in the U.S. The provincial government is targeting health-care workers in the nearby states of Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, touting Manitoba's strengths and priorities, including safe and inclusive communities, good schools, strong social supports and comparable affordability with a high quality of life. Doctors Manitoba had ramped up its own recruitment efforts late last year with a similar message in an effort to appeal to physicians in search of stability and respect after Donald Trump was elected U.S. president. "We have the privilege of working in an environment where the government doesn't generally get in between us and our patients, so that was the kind of the selling point that we brought," Desilets said. "We're grateful to see that our public advocacy efforts were able to influence government stakeholders and our own regulatory college to take a look at all of the requirements and to kind of take our lead." She couldn't say, though, if the efforts have prompted anyone to relocate north of the border. "As a front-line working doctor, I wouldn't be privy to that knowledge, but we do know that our office has had people reach out to inquire about the process and what the work environment looks like," Desilets said. "Despite the flaws in our health-care system, and I acknowledge that there are many of them, I am safe when I go to work, I know that the government is going to pay me for the services that I provide to patients, and I know that I have an organization that backs me and my colleagues up when we go to work every day." Doctors Manitoba will continue to promote those benefits through its own recruitment efforts in news media interviews, advertisements, and the website ManitobaMD.com. While the push to open the door more to American doctors is welcome, it's only one aspect of addressing the shortage, Desilets said. The barriers between provinces need to be dealt with, as well. "Even though people expect health care to be nationally available to them, it's still administered on a provincial level. So this is a barrier to recruiting physicians to Manitoba, no matter where you're coming from," she said. "The fact that we don't have enough doctors to serve our population is a multi-pronged challenge. There's not one golden answer … and we're going to continue to advocate. We need more doctors, we need more specialists."
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Province approves regulation changes to lure U.S. docs to Manitoba
More U.S.-trained physicians are expected to join the Manitoba workforce, following provincial efforts to streamline recruitment amid an ongoing doctor shortage. The Manitoba government approved a change to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba regulations, forging a path for U.S. doctors to apply for full licensure if they meet certain requirements. The change means physicians no longer have to apply for provisional registration before they can obtain full licenses — eliminating the need for 'supervisors, assessments, and practice location restrictions, which can be costly and time consuming,' the college said, announcing the change in a statement Thursday. Doctors Manitoba president Nichelle Desilets said she's excited to see the recruitment push for U.S. physicians. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun files) 'We looked at our regulations in Manitoba and designed a new path to licensure that would benefit both the province and U.S. physicians looking to relocate,' Dr. Ainslie Mihalchuk, college registrar and CEO said. 'Our goal is to have the proper requirements in place so that only people who are safe to practise can do so, but we also don't want requirements that create unnecessary barriers.' To qualify, the doctors must have completed an accredited residency program, and possess relevant certification and licenses in the U.S. Medical regulators in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have similar provisions in place. Manitoba's amendment took effect on May 30, the college said. Doctors Manitoba publicly advocated for the change last November, when it launched advertisements in medical magazines and newsletters appealing to U.S. doctors. The campaign targeted health-care providers in North Dakota, Florida and other states where abortion and gender-affirming care had become politicized issues during Donald Trump's presidential run. The materials market Manitoba's low cost of living, competitive pay, friendly reputation, universal health-care coverage and a culture of putting trust and value in both doctors and medical evidence. Wednesdays Sent weekly from the heart of Turtle Island, an exploration of Indigenous voices, perspectives and experiences. In March, Shared Health launched a similar recruitment campaign aimed at health-care workers in Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. 'We are excited to see that our work to appeal to U.S. physicians, dismayed with the political and financial uncertainties posed by the current administration, has inspired our partners who are making concrete changes to our health system,' Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Nichelle Desilets said in a news release Thursday. Doctors Manitoba said the number of physicians in Manitoba has grown, but national reporting shows the province still has the second fewest physicians per capita in Canada. It will continue to call for more training, recruitment and retention efforts, the news release said. Tyler SearleReporter Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press's city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic's creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler. Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Global News
07-05-2025
- Health
- Global News
Nurses union bemoans lack of health-care progress in Manitoba, rally planned
More than 500 Manitoba nurses are expected to attend a rally at the legislature Wednesday, calling for changes in the province's health-care system. Despite a change in provincial government almost two years ago, the Manitoba Nurses Union says its members are still encountering the same broken health-care system shift after shift and that they are feeling disappointed and frustrated with the lack of progress. President Darlene Jackson told 680 CJOB's The Start that wait times are up and workplace violence is increasing, turning many nurses away from the profession. 'There's probably not a shift in the last year that there hasn't been violence in some facility, or probably all facilities, some type of violence … and that is massive. 'Nurses are leaving because of it. I had one nurse that said to me, 'I loved my job at the Health Sciences Centre, but I'm not putting my life at risk to go to work.'' Story continues below advertisement Jackson said promises made by the NDP government have, so far, seemed empty, and nurses are growing more frustrated as morale continues to deteriorate. Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'We are still seeing nurses working short with the incredibly heavy workloads — mandated overtime and tons of voluntary overtime is still a thing,' she said. 'Our wait times are rising eyery year. They rose again this year. Nurses are frustrated because we truly hoped that we would see some big differences in health care based on the promises and we're just not seeing that.' Jackson, who has been a nurse since 1981, told The Start the state of health care in the province is now worse than it was in the 1990s when nurses went on strike. While the MNU says it would give the province's current health care situation a D-minus grade, a spokesperson for Doctors Manitoba said that organization has a slightly more positive view. 'Looking at the evidence we have on health care, and considering there was a pandemic and years of disruption and underfunding, Doctors Manitoba would grade the progress of the last 18 months as a B-minus — improvement still needed, but on the right track,' they said in a statement. The spokesperson said Manitobans still have reasons to have concerns about the system — with 'unreasonably long' wait times and hospitals experiencing service closures, plus burnout among doctors. Improvement has been seen, however, as far as recruitment to turn around the doctor shortage and wait-time improvements in certain areas. Story continues below advertisement 'There's still a lot that as to get better, but it's safe to say Manitoba is on the right track when it comes to improving health care,' the statement said. Global News has reached out the premier and health minister for comment.
Winnipeg Free Press
02-05-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba regulator proposes fast-track for U.S. physicians
Facing the second-largest doctor shortage in Canada, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba has launched a review to make it easier for American-certified physicians to become licensed in Manitoba. 'We understand the pressures in Manitoba to get more physicians into practice. So we are constantly looking for ways that we can cut down on red tape or facilitate safe changes to a process that might have worked historically, but doesn't meet our modern demand,' said Dr. Ainslie Mihalchuk, registrar for the Manitoba physician watchdog. The proposed changes would allow physicians from the U.S. to apply for Manitoba licences if they have completed an accredited residency program and hold certification from the American Board of Medical Specialists and have an independent or full licence to practice with a U.S. state medical board. NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS FILES Dr. Ainslie Mihalchuk said the restrictions are costly, time-consuming and a disincentive to doctors applying to practise in Manitoba. NIC ADAM / FREE PRESS FILES Dr. Ainslie Mihalchuk said the restrictions are costly, time-consuming and a disincentive to doctors applying to practise in Manitoba. If all goes to plan, internationally trained doctors could be working in Manitoba by June. Similar policies are in place in several other Canadian provinces, including British Columbia, which changed regulations in February. Mihalchuk and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba looked east and west of Manitoba and, to remain competitive in the market, began the process to loosen regulations. 'If Manitoba is an outlier, that's not good for us,' Mihalchuk said. Current regulations dictate that individuals must first apply for provisional registration, which places limitations on their ability to practise medicine (such as requiring supervisors, assessments, and practice location restrictions). Mihalchuk said the restrictions are costly, time-consuming and a disincentive to doctors applying to practise in Manitoba. 'We went to them and said we think that this is a safe thing to do (and) it would make us attractive to physicians from the States that we know are interested in potentially practising in Manitoba,' Mihalchuk said. The regulator said it is generally accepted among Canadian medical boards that American physicians are as competent and safe as their Canadian counterparts. Doctors Manitoba applauds the proposed changes. After launching recruitment efforts late last year, the doctor advocacy organization said there was interest from physicians south of the border but Manitoba's restrictive licensing requirements for internationally trained doctors was a barrier. 'We want to make sure that every physician practising in Manitoba is practising of the highest standard,' said Doctors Manitoba CEO Theresa Oswald. 'But there are ways to do this that have proven to be more accessible and more rapid than has been the case in Manitoba.' Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. In December, the group took the unusual step of launching its own campaign to target health-care providers in North Dakota, Florida and other states where providers could find their practice in jeopardy under U.S. President Donald Trump's policies targeting the health-care system. Since taking office, Trump has signed off on ending federal support for gender-affirming care, exiting the World Health Organization and no longer recognizing transgender and non-binary identities. 'We know here in Manitoba that that (doctor-patient) sanctity is respected and that evidence and science have to be at the forefront,' Oswald said. Oswald estimates between 40 and 50 doctors have expressed interest in coming to Manitoba, which the organization has referred to the province's recruitment and retention office. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Thursday the province is actively engaged with about a dozen foreign doctors to receive their Manitoba certification. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES The province has hired more than 1,600 net-new health-care workers since April 2024, including 600 nurses, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES The province has hired more than 1,600 net-new health-care workers since April 2024, including 600 nurses, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said. Asagwara accused the previous Progressive Conservative government of not taking the necessary steps to improve patient care or use a patient-centred approach. 'Our government is laser-focused on making health care better for Manitobans, and that means making sure that we have the health-care professionals and experts in our province to provide that care,' the minister said. In March, Shared Health launched a similar recruitment campaign south of the border in an effort to bring American nurses to Manitoba. The initiative was to offer asylum to working nurses worried about their ability to care for patients, while addressing the province's nurse shortage. At the time, Asagwara said the recruitment and retention office had worked to make transferring U.S. nursing licences to Manitoba easier. The province has hired more than 1,600 net-new health-care workers since April 2024, including 600 nurses, Asagwara said. Provincial figures on nurses hired through the recruitment campaign were not made available before press time. The NDP campaigned on a promise to hire 400 new doctors within five years prior to winning the 2023 election. No update was provided Thursday on the status of that objective. Nicole BuffieMultimedia producer Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College's Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole. Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
15-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
Don't forget rural health care this federal election, Manitoba doctors and residents say
Doctors and residents in northern and rural Manitoba say health care in their communities must be a federal election priority this year, as emergency rooms continue to close and patients travel further and longer for care. The emergency room at Morris General Hospital, 60 kilometres south of Winnipeg, closed indefinitely in September 2023. It's one of several rural Manitoba ERs to shutter in recent years due to health-care worker shortages. "You can go there with somebody half dying, and all it's got is a thing on the door: The emergency's closed," said Eileen Klassen, 78, who lives down the road from the hospital. "It's not the doctors or the nurses. They work hard." Klassen counts herself lucky because after the ER closed, she experienced a stroke and survived. Instead of being rushed to the local hospital down the street, she was transported to Boundary Trails Health Centre near Winkler, Man. — about 45 kilometres away. The ER's closure also concerns Megan Adams, who lives with multiple sclerosis, and whose son had an allergic reaction to kiwi last summer. "When your son's life is being threatened and you have no choice but to call an ambulance and take your son on a 45-minute drive to receive treatment ... it can be pretty problematic," Adams said. Accessibility to health care is among Adams' top priorities this federal election. National strategy needed, physicians say Doctors Manitoba says this province falls second last in doctors per capita, at 219 physicians per 100,000 people, according to 2023 data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. For family doctors, Manitoba ranks last among the provinces at 107 doctors per 100,000 people. In northern and rural Manitoba, it's 94 physicians per 100,000 residents. The increasing doctor and health-care worker shortage is why the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada is calling on all federal parties to create a national rural health workforce strategy, fund a skills training program and implement a national licensing system that would make it easier for physicians to practice across the country. The NDP said in an emailed statement the party would bring more doctors to northern and rural areas by supporting pan-Canadian licensing. They'd also create regional and remote medical schools, fully implement Jordan's Principle and provide grants to rural family doctors to help them stay in communities, a spokesperson said. CBC did not hear back from the Conservative or Liberal parties before publication. Long-term skills training program needed Neepawa, Man., family doctor Nichelle Desilets knows patients are travelling further and longer for health care. "I think it, unfortunately, has been accepted as the new norm both in my community and surrounding areas," said Desilets, who is also the president-elect of Doctors Manitoba. While she acknowledges provincial and municipal governments also have large roles to play in attracting rural doctors, she says health care is also a federal election issue. "I know that there's a lot of people that are stressed over economic concerns, over tariffs from the United States … but we can't let health care fall too low on the priority list. That has to stay at the top," she said. Last week, Desilets gave a presentation at the University of Manitoba's Health Sciences Centre medical school campus, hoping to convince about a dozen medical students to work in northern and rural areas. Desilets explained how rural physicians are not only trained in family medicine but may also need expertise in emergency medicine, geriatrics, obstetrics, palliative care and surgery. The Society of Rural Physicians' president Dr. Gavin Parker says that's one of the main reasons doctors in rural areas decide to leave: They're "feeling uncomfortable with the clinical scenarios they might come across." He credits a recent national one-year pilot program with helping 342 doctors working in Indigenous and rural communities to upgrade their skills according to their needs. The federal government contributed $7.4 million to the advanced skills training program, which Parker says covered training and travel costs and paid for locums — doctors who fill in for physicians while they're away. "It was a hugely successful project," said Parker, who practices in Pincher Creek, Alta. That nationally co-ordinated program was based on others offered in some provinces, including Alberta, Parker said. Over his career, he says it's helped him retrain in anesthesia and cardiac stress testing. Doctors say rural health care 'in crisis' Parker is advocating for a national skills training program to become permanent, along with the creation of a national rural health workforce strategy to make sure, in part, that medical schools support and train students for the jobs that are available and in the locations where they're needed. He's also calling for pan-Canadian licensing, so doctors face fewer administrative and cost burdens to practice across different jurisdictions. Dr. Sarah Newbery, a rural generalist family doctor in Marathon, Ont., agrees. She describes northern and rural health care as being "in crisis." Part of the day-to-day challenges she experiences relate to the difficulties in finding locums when doctors get sick, go on vacation or retire. Newbery urges the next federal government to make sure there's an end-to-end pathway for doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, social workers, laboratory technicians and more — from how they're educated to how they're recruited and retained — to work in northern and rural areas. Without a strategy, Newbery and Parker say burnout and fatigue among rural doctors will accelerate, and patients will increasingly flood urban health-care facilities and lengthen emergency department wait times there. "We have an opportunity to focus on how we support and stabilize rural health services, and that will make it more appealing for people to work here," said Newbery, who co-chairs the society's health human resources committee. Klassen believes people in Morris, Man., and the surrounding areas deserve a better hospital with more services. "It makes me very worried since I had that stroke," Klassen said. Southern Health continues to face challenges recruiting rural family doctors, but efforts are ongoing, including to recruit internationally-trained physicians, a health authority spokesperson said in an email. They say the health authority is working to reopen the Morris hospital ER, although it's unclear when that will be. At 78, Klassen says she isn't going to move now, and she hopes the conversation on health care doesn't forget rural towns like hers. Doctors and residents in rural and northern Manitoba say health care in their communities must be a priority in this federal election, as emergency rooms continue to close and patients travel farther away for care.
