.jpg)
The Chief Medical Officer for Southern Health is referring to it as a "fairly remarkable agreement."
Dr. Denis Fortier is referring to the physician services agreement signed with the Manitoba government. In part, the agreement features $268 million in increased funding over four years to help stabilize medical services and support recruitment and retention. The agreement includes a 6.1 per cent increase in funding over four years for physician services.
"There's a lot of dollars on the table related to that agreement," notes Dr. Fortier. "And I think it addresses a number of key items that were certainly causing us some concerns as we were coming out of COVID and into this new world of health human resource challenges."
Dr. Fortier says whether it is alternately funded physicians or fee for service physicians, the wages appear to be competitive with Ontario and the western provinces.
"It may not necessarily attract people to the province actively, but certainly anybody with interest in Manitoba or with family in Manitoba might look at it and say 'hey, this is maybe a good time to come back,'" notes Dr. Fortier.
Though he does not know the exact number of physicians departing Manitoba for other provinces, Dr. Fortier says he is aware that in Southern Health there has been a slight increase in physicians leaving due to agreements signed to the west. Dr. Fortier says they did not want to see the number of departures increase and he is optimistic that this physician agreement will go a long way to address that.
Dr. Fortier says the agreement also goes a long way in valuing the work of the family physician. He notes we sometimes take for granted that primary care is the foundation of the health care system. However, Dr. Fortier says even though emergency care and cardiac care are absolutely critical, majority of a person's time spent in the health system will almost always be with their primary care physician.
"So that is a foundation that we really need to value and I think this agreement goes a long way to valuing the family physician," he adds.
Dr. Fortier says the agreement also has incentives built in for physicians to work and possibly live in rural Manitoba. He explains that in rural Manitoba it is often the family doctor who also serves as an emergency doctor, hospital doctor or work in the surgical department. Dr. Fortier says this agreement values family physicians in rural Manitoba.
"So you can get paid to be a family doc in clinic in a community, and then you can get paid well now to be doing some hospital work, or getting paid well to be someone doing urgent care or emergency work," adds Dr. Fortier.
Dr. Fortier says that he appreciates the value this agreement places onto the family physician, referring to them as specialists.
"What the health system needs is valued family physicians who do this very difficult work of differentiating, trying to find out what a person has when they step into the office or when they step into the emergency room," he adds.
Dr. Fortier says the health sector is suffering as a result of the pandemic. He notes there are now gaps in nursing and physician resources. And now as we live in a post-pandemic world, Dr. Fortier says we are facing nearly insurmountable human resource challenges.
"This agreement is going to help a lot in terms of stabilizing," he adds. "It will reduce and hopefully reverse the overall loss that we had in physician resources."
Dr. Fortier points out that though there is much to like in this agreement, it is not perfect and he says Doctors Manitoba would agree. He notes there are things that have been negotiated well, but other things that still need to be worked on.
"Not everyone got what everyone needed," he says. "But I think they've listened and they've come a long way and it will help us I think coming out of the pandemic with our health human resource challenges."
In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, PortageOnline encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the PortageOnline app.