Doctors demand province escalate efforts to attract physicians

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This article was published 23/11/2022 (665 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Doctors Manitoba is calling for immediate action to tackle the worsening physician shortage, just weeks after Manitoba introduced a wide-scale human resources plan for the health sector.

Dr. Candace Bradshaw, a Winnipeg family doctor, said solving Manitoba’s doctor shortage is doable if the process is streamlined and time-wasting paperwork is eliminated to reduce doctors’ workloads.

“It can’t happen fast enough,” Bradshaw said during a virtual news conference Thursday.

The call for action comes two weeks after the physicians’ lobby group met with the provincial government and provided recommendations for human-resource planning, at the government’s request.

“We need to see something in writing, some concrete action plan, some comprehensive response to our recommendations, because we haven’t seen that yet,” Bradshaw said.

Speaking to reporters after question period Thursday, Health Minister Audrey Gordon said she is reviewing dozens of recommendations from the Doctors Manitoba rural health-care summit this fall, but is committed to “crossing the finish line” with them.

She didn’t provide specific timelines for when the recommendations would be followed.

“We are very committed to moving forward with those recommendations and continuing the recruitment efforts that are underway.”

The doctor shortage is at an all-time high. Manitoba has one of the lowest per capita complements of doctors, with just 217 doctors per 100,000 residents, according to the latest data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information. The province needs 405 more physicians to meet the national average of 246 doctors per 100,000 people.

Without a “big change,” the shortage will only get worse, Bradshaw said.

Doctors Manitoba, which has more than 4,000 physician members, surveyed doctors to find out that currently 43 per cent of Manitoba doctors plan to retire, leave the province or cut back their clinic hours. Those who plan to leave or work less blamed systemic problems Bradshaw said, such as excessive paperwork, unreasonable on-call expectations and lack of time to spend on patient care.

“Our thorough analysis found that a lot of this is actually preventable, but only if there’s a rapid response.”

They want the province to establish a doctor recruitment website and agency to help attract doctors, including those who are being lost to much more aggressive “recruitment sharks” or more attractive benefit packages in provinces such as Alberta or B.C.

Insurance companies and governments can make policy changes that would reduce and streamline paperwork doctors need to fill out, Bradshaw said.

She cited the example of redundant drug-exception forms that are only required so insurance companies can establish a paper trail of drug-coverage rejection.

Reducing that uncompensated administrative burden would help to retain doctors, she suggested.

“As a family doctor, it would go a long way for me if I was able to spend (more) time with my patients,” Bradshaw said.

“Five minutes, 10 minutes. That’s all I’m asking. I just need to be able to address more issues with patients. That’s what they’re (asking) and that’s what they need.”

If the doctor shortage worsens, medical care will continue to be centralized in urban centres and reduced in rural areas, which is already happening, Bradshaw said.

“That would be very sad and very scary for everyone living outside of Winnipeg or Brandon.”

Every jurisdiction is struggling with doctor shortages, the health minister said.

“We want to be the best province in the country in terms of physician recruitment and retention and I think we are headed in the right direction,” Gordon said.

Winnipeg Regional Health Authority chief medical officer Dr. Joss Reimer said the WRHA is trying to cut back administrative work and help doctors feel supported. They are concerned about the doctor shortage, “and concerned about the direction that things are going,” Reimer said during a separate news conference Thursday.

“It’s something very much front of mind for us, because we know that if people have access to good primary care… they’re going to be healthier,” and rely less on emergency care.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com

Katie May
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Katie May is a general-assignment reporter for the Free Press.

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