For many years, ongoing recruitment initiatives by the C.W. Wiebe Medical Centre's physician group and Winkler and District Healthcare Board have been working well. However, it's no secret the region of the C.W. Wiebe Medical Centre, like many communities across the country is facing a shortage of physicians.
Jim Neufeld, interim C.E.O. at the C.W. Wiebe Medical Centre, said some new challenges have emerged. He said several factors are affecting physician recruitment
"There are challenges across the whole country, but many of the additional challenges, I'd say that we have here in Winkler, in this area of Manitoba, is we also are one of the areas still experiencing significant population growth."
There is also a lot of investment happening in the region in healthcare, added Neufeld, pointing out the expansion underway at Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC).
Neufeld says the expansion will allow them to deliver a larger variety of new services in healthcare in the area. "But all of those come with having to recruit the professionals to make those services happen, and to augment what we're currently doing."
The challenge is not just to maintain the status quo, shared Neufeld. The challenge is also to figure out ways to recruit the appropriate people to serve the growing area. "So, it's a good news story creating a problem, at this point."
More recently, Neufeld says they’ve been casting their recruitment net wider than they have done so in the past.
With a larger population area using BTHC for many services, what happens at the regional facility impacts the clinics in Winkler and Morden.
Intermittent closures of in-patient and ER closures at a few hospitals in the Southern Heath- Sante Sud region, for example, are some reasons traffic at BTHC will spike.
"The physicians at the Morden and Winkler clinics provide all those services at Boundary Trails, so those physicians are now spending more time taking care of that service, making them less available for their primary care patients and doing primary care," said Neufeld.
"So again, it's not just the numbers of physicians, it's also the work has been changing, and is changing, in the area where things are happening, and who's responsible for that group."
Over the past number of years, Neufeld said a lot of their doctors were Manitoba Medical School Graduates. He said it's a well-established process that's been working well. However, because of the recent increased need and urgency to bring people in right now, Neufeld said they’re also looking at bringing in physicians from other countries.
"We currently have a physician that should be joining us shortly coming from the U.K.," Neufeld shared. The recruitment is part of a provincial initiative, which Neufeld said is another tool they are now using to gain more doctors.
Recruiting from outside the country creates a new layer of challenges, said Neufeld, specifically when someone is moving here from significantly far away.
"One of them we've experienced is finding housing for somebody showing up on relatively short notice and making that, you know, happen."
Another new physician is not practicing because they haven’t been able to find childcare.
"They won't be practicing until childcare services can be found, so we're hoping we can resolve that in some way relatively soon, but that will be a challenge until we can get that resolved."
Neufeld said those are the new challenges they’re facing in bringing additional physicians to the area.
Winkler City Councilor, Marvin Plett, also serves as a member of the Winkler and District Healthcare Board.
Plett says the board works very closely with the (C.W. Wiebe Medical Centre) physician group. As part of the agreement they have, Plett said the board traditionally provided the space and the physician group took care of recruitment. "That worked very well for us, and now with some new challenges, we're looking at augmenting it, so together, we can find ways to recruit more."
Considering some of the new challenges, like housing and daycare, Plett says they’re continually looking for ways to provide what is required to offer the care each of their families needs, locally, and in our area.
"For me, it's good to have people aware."
"I know this is a very caring community, and many people have very innovative ways of doing things, said" Plett. He said they welcome those innovative suggestions.
The Winkler District Healthcare Board is not a "Winkler alone" organization.
"It's an organization that was struck up some 25 years ago to help address this very same problem at that time, and it's made of members from the Councils of Roland, Rhineland, RM of Stanley and Winkler."
"We also have other board members that represent Eden Health Care and Winkler Chamber, so it's a large group of people that care a lot about providing good services and healthcare services to our community," said Plett.
Although the current environment of recruiting medical staff across the country is a challenge, Neufeld says with partners like our communities and working at this together, it's something they can overcome.
"We know at the clinic that we're not meeting all of the needs the community has right now, and that's really disappointing to us," said Neufeld.
"I can assure you all efforts are being made, and everyone's working as hard as they possibly can, but the solution is to bring in additional services, and get them here, and get them established, and make them part of our community, so we can meet those needs."
Neufeld says although they are having some success with that right now, those successes are also running into some other areas making it a little more difficult.
"And like I say, 'working with the community,’ I'm sure we can get our way through this."
Neufeld stressed much of this is a good news story. Currently, it's just creating some challenges.
"The fact the healthcare services being developed in this area, that we'll be able to sustain in the future in this area, is a wonderful story for this part of Manitoba," said Neufeld.