Prairie Mountain Health to stop cost-sharing plan of recruiting doctors

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BRANDON — Prairie Mountain Health says it will no longer agree to cost-sharing arrangements with municipal governments to recruit doctors after it ended one such deal last month.

The change was outlined in a June 25 letter from Treena Slate, CEO of the rural health authority, to “community stakeholders.” A copy of the letter was posted on the website for the R.M. of Sifton in western Manitoba.

“As you may be aware, in May 2023, Prairie Mountain Health began offering a recruitment incentive to all new (out of region) physician recruits to PMH,” the letter reads.

“This incentive was available to physician recruits who would provide regular and ongoing services to PMH facilities and/or programs and were willing to agree to four-year return of service agreement.

“Following an evaluation of this strategy, and to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all candidates, (PMH) will cease this incentive effective June 2024.

“As well, with the implementation of the provincial framework/strategy for physician recruitment, (PMH) will no longer be entering into individual cost sharing arrangements with communities for the purpose of contracting with physician recruitment firms.”

Slate was not available for an interview on Tuesday but sent a statement that said all existing agreements with municipalities will be honoured, she said.

“We have seen some success, but we understand this approach is not feasible for every community in the region, which is why we continue to participate in other recruitment efforts like Rural Week with medical students, domestic and international physician recruitment conferences, new work-life balance initiatives in partnership with Doctors Manitoba, and continued use of the international medical graduate program.”

She also referenced recruitment efforts at the provincial level, such as the restoration of the rural doctor recruitment fund, an increase in the number of medical residency spots and the introduction of medical training to Brandon University.

Some of those successes in recruiting physicians were in Killarney, Hamiota and Glenboro-South Cypress.

Two doctors from England will arrive in Killarney this fall after they were recruited with the help of Winnipeg-based recruiting company Waterford Global.

In 2016, the same firm helped Killarney recruit two other doctors, with half of the $240,000 cost covered by Prairie Mountain.

Hamiota also hired Waterford Global. The Brandon Sun reported in April that PMH was covering $75,000 of the $150,000 cost, with the other half covered by the Hamiota District Health Centre Foundation.

Janice Smith, mayor of the R.M. of Killarney-Turtle Mountain, said Tuesday she had received a copy of Slate’s letter.

“We will certainly miss that incentive, because it is very helpful,” Smith said. “But I do understand that it is costly when all the municipalities are doing it all at once.”

Smith said her municipality would continue its physician recruitment efforts and include it as a budget item each year, but will have to be more creative to find the money.

Hamiota Mayor Randy Lints said he was unaware of the letter.

He said Waterford Global has asked Hamiota to sit in on an interview with a potential physician recruit. On top of that, he said some physicians and other medical personnel reached out to the municipality after its incentive programs received publicity.

Another doctor who did some of her residency in Hamiota last year has been hired by Prairie Mountain to return to the community, Lints said, guessing that she would likely start in September.

Combined with an international medical graduate hired earlier this year, Lints said Hamiota is poised to double its number of physicians.

“I can understand where they’re coming from, financially. They have to make budget. There’s only so much money and perhaps they’re getting too much interest that they have to scale that back. But it was a fantastic opportunity for communities,” Lints said.

His colleague, Glenboro-South Cypress Mayor Charles Radford, said he had also not heard about the end of the recruitment programs.

He said Waterford Global is also working with their municipality and recently brought a doctor from the U.K. to the community to consider moving there. Another doctor recruited last year has purchased a house and is settling in.

“I just want the ER opened up again and full medical staff in our clinic for at least eight to 10 hours a day,” Radford said. “Basically, we’re short a doctor right now and we’re actively pursuing this.”

During last fall’s Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention in Brandon, Premier Wab Kinew brought up the efforts of communities like Killarney to recruit doctors.

“Basically, let’s match those funds that municipal leaders are raising so that we can bring more physicians to rural Manitoba,” Kinew said at the convention.

In a phone interview, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara commended the work of regional health authorities and municipalities to recruit physicians.

“Our government is here to act as a partner to (them) in successfully recruiting physicians to their communities,” Asagwara said.

“We’ve seen some early success in that approach in a community like Carberry, for example.”

The Carberry Health Centre’s emergency room reopened in May after being closed since September 2023 due to a lack of physicians.

Asagwara said the province’s recruitment and retention office has a specific focus on rural communities.

“We’ve taken real steps to ensure they have the resources they need by way of government in order to make health care better for their community members,” Asagwara said.

In a statement, Tory health critic Kathleen Cook blamed the NDP for the end of the Prairie Mountain recruitment program.

“It’s concerning to see the NDP winding down physician recruitment efforts when they have not announced their alternatives,” Cook wrote.

“The CEO is on record saying the region needs 80-plus physicians to be whole. Prairie Mountain Health has one of the biggest health human resource challenges in the province, with communities like Glenboro and Carberry having to put in immense amounts of work on their own to incentivize physicians in their communities.

— Brandon Sun