More doctors are working in Manitoba, providing care for Manitobans and their families than ever before. This announcement was made by Health Minister Erin Selby.
“We have made it a priority to invest in education, training and the recruitment of doctors to ensure Manitobans can access quality care,” said Minister Selby. “We’re committed to making investments that support our health-care system for families and for those that work in it every day.”
An additional 83 physicians are now working in communities across the province, the largest net gain of doctors in a single year in the province.
“I grew up in Manitoba and always knew I wanted to work in a rural community,” said Dr. Nicole Porath, a family physician working in Steinbach. “After attending medical school in Winnipeg and continuing my training in both Brandon and Dauphin, it made sense to set up my practice here, close to my family and friends.”
This brings the total number of doctors to an all time high of 2,682. The numbers are compiled by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba and show an overall net increase of more than 665 doctors since 1999.
“The college is delighted that Manitoba has been able to attract as well as retain physicians to be part of the team contributing to health care in Manitoba,” said Dr. Terry Babick, deputy registrar, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba.
The new numbers show 2,055 physicians are practising in Winnipeg, with an additional 627 in Brandon, rural and northern Manitoba.
“In 2011 we made a commitment to hire 200 more doctors and today we can officially say, mission accomplished, as 210 have begun practice in the province since that time. But we’re not stopping there,” said Minister Selby. “We know how important health care is to families and as we work towards ensuring every Manitoban has access to a family doctor by 2015, families can count on us to keep making investments that will attract and train even more doctors.”
“We are pleased our strategies to retain our medical graduates in our residency programs are successful and positively affecting the number of physicians licensed in the province,” said Dr. Brian Postl, dean, department of medicine, and dean, faculty of health sciences, University of Manitoba. “In our largest graduating class to date last May, more than 80 per cent of our 109 grads are staying in Manitoba to complete their medical training and benefit patient care in Manitoba.”
Since 1999, provincial investments to train, recruit and retain more physicians include:
- expanding the number of medical school training seats at the University of Manitoba faculty of medicine to 110 following the reduction to 70 seats during the 1990s;
- adding new medical residency training positions at the University of Manitoba for a total of 138 first-year, post-graduate seats;
- adding additional rural residency training positions including five in the northern and remote residency stream in 2013-14, with students working Flin Flon, Norway House and Hodgsonthis year;
- adding four first-year medical residency training positions in Brandon; and
- introducing a 60 per cent tuition rebate to help retain Manitoba graduates and attract physicians.
The Minister noted that since the Tuition Fee Rebate for Graduates was introduced in 2007, more than $104.4 million has been rebated back to graduates. Since the Tuition Fee Income Tax Rebate Advance for Students was introduced in 2010, an additional $5.7 million has been advanced to students.
For more information on physician recruitment in Manitoba, visit www.healthemployment.ca.
