The City of Steinbach is urging the Province of Manitoba and the Max Rady College of Medicine to take bold steps to address the ongoing rural doctor shortage, calling for a new rural admissions stream that would reserve 15 medical student seats annually for future rural family physicians.
“The decision to advocate for a rural seats stream is built on the information gathered through the doctor recruitment task force as well as through many discussions with different individuals in healthcare,” says Councillor Susan Penner, member of the local Doctor Recruitment Task Force.
City council is sending a formal letter to Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara and Dr. Peter Nickerson, Dean of the Max Rady College of Medicine, asking them to create a dedicated Rural Medicine Stream within the University of Manitoba’s medical school. The city says this initiative is urgently needed to ensure long-term access to primary care in rural and remote communities.
Doctor shortage straining rural health care
“Many rural and northern communities are struggling with limited or no access to consistent primary care,” the letter states. “Despite strong efforts in recruitment and retention, the demand continues to outpace supply, placing enormous strain on both the healthcare system and the Manitobans who rely on it.”
While the province and the medical school have acknowledged the growing shortage of rural doctors, the city says progress has been limited by the tendency for most students to pursue urban-based specialties rather than rural family medicine.
“As a city, we want our residents to be well-cared for, and having more family doctors is an essential piece of that,” Penner says. “We believe that identifying med-school applicants who intend to practice rurally as a part of the admissions process, and having designated seats for them, is one of the ways we will start seeing more rural doctors.”
Rural physician shortage is not a new concern
Back in October 2022, SteinbachOnline published an article about the significant physician shortage in Manitoba, especially in rural, northern, and Indigenous communities. A joint report was released that fall by Doctors Manitoba and the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce that outlined five key recommendations to attract and retain physicians, based on input from a rural health summit held in September 2022.
The report called for expanded training, reduced administrative burdens, peer mentorship, infrastructure support, and greater community involvement in recruitment. It was submitted to the provincial government, with both organizations offering support in the implementation process.
Earlier this year, in February, Minister Asagwara said the government is prioritizing rural recruitment, training and partnerships to improve access to care in rural communities. They said that one of the province's strategies to address rural staffing shortages is to train local people for health-care careers.
“We know that when you do the work of training people in rural communities, they are more likely to stay and serve in those communities,” Asagwara told SteinbachOnline. “There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. We need to make sure that we are listening to communities and taking unique approaches to meet their unique needs.”
Modelled after successful targeted admission programs
Steinbach's recent letter to the Health Minister draws on examples from Manitoba and across Canada to show how rural-focused admissions can work. Manitoba’s existing Indigenous Admissions Stream and Bilingual Stream at the University of Manitoba offer proven models for targeted recruitment aimed at improving health equity. The city argues that a Rural Medicine Stream would be a “natural and urgent extension” of these programs.
Other provinces are already ahead in this area, according to Steinbach’s letter. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine was created specifically to serve northern and rural communities and has had measurable success in retaining doctors. Similar programs and reserved seats exist at the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador, and through the Queen’s-Lakehead medical partnership in Ontario.
“These examples highlight the national shift toward dedicated rural medical education pathways,” the letter reads.
A pipeline for rural care
The proposed Rural Medicine Stream would aim to admit students who are already committed to practicing in rural areas, many of whom come from those regions themselves. The city believes this would strengthen the likelihood that graduates will stay and serve in rural Manitoba.
“I think it would make a huge impact,” said Mayor Earl Funk, speaking from the Convention Centre in Ottawa where he is participating in the annual convention of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. “We only see the benefits of this over time in the next few years because it always takes years until we do have doctors that have graduated. But I think it's going to start making the difference that we need to see.”
Funk said the challenge they have noticed is that there are a lot of students, locally and across the province, who are choosing to specialize.
“So that doesn't help the family doctor situation. That's why we’re asking them to prioritize (rural students) that are looking to do family medicine,” he explained.
The proposal calls for 15 seats per year to be set aside for this purpose—enough to make a long-term impact without displacing other applicants.
“Designating 15 seats annually for students committed to rural family medicine would strengthen long-term physician recruitment in underserved communities,” Steinbach’s letter says. “It would reinforce Manitoba’s commitment to equitable and accessible healthcare, and align with the stated goals of both the provincial government and the Max Rady College of Medicine.”
The city is calling on both Minister Asagwara and Dean Nickerson to work together on the proposal, which it sees as a “comprehensive, sustainable solution” to the rural health care crisis.
“We respectfully urge both of your offices to consider this proposal,” the letter concludes. “Together, the government and the medical school have the ability and responsibility to shape a future where all Manitobans, regardless of geography, have access to the care they deserve.”
Penner looks forward to meeting with Southern Health on June 6th to discuss doctor recruitment and retention.