Manitoba hoping to recruit 15 French-speaking physicians as part of promise to hire more doctors

The organization responsible for health care in Manitoba is trying to recruit more bilingual family doctors to work here.

Shared Health is working with the Toronto-based recruitment company Canadian Health Labs to find 15 new French- and English-speaking physicians to come to Manitoba, according to an amended contract obtained by Radio-Canada through an access to information request.

The province’s arrangement with Canadian Health Labs, the recruiter, is part of a deal announced under Manitoba’s former Progressive Conservative government last July, when then-health minister Audrey Gordon announced the province was hoping to recruit 150 physicians.

An amendment to that deal signed between the recruitment company and Shared Health less than a month later says 10 per cent of the 150 new recruits must be bilingual in French and English.

That target was set based on the proportion of francophones in the province — about 8.4 per cent, a spokesperson for Shared Health said.

“This was the intended goal from the onset, and the contract was amended to rectify this,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Under the province’s recruitment strategy, up to 50 of the newly recruited doctors would work in Winnipeg, with as many as 50 more in rural Manitoba and 50 in northern Manitoba.

Jérémie Roberge, executive director of Santé en Français (Health in French) — a non-profit that advocates for French-language health services — welcomes the 10 per cent target.

His organization has been working with Shared Health for the last five years to create more French health services, he said.

“We are pleased with the outcome of this collaborative partnership, and we welcome the continued steps taken forward,” Roberge said in a statement to CBC News.

His organization will be responsible for assessing the physicians’ French language competency, Shared Health said, “with requirements differing depending on the site and circumstances of their work and to help ensure language does not pose any barrier to care.”

No doctors hired yet

Canadian Health Labs submitted its proposal to provide physician recruitment services in May, after Shared Health put out a request for proposals the month before.

The request for proposals said the physicians recruited will remain in the community for a minimum of four years.

The province and the recruiter agreed to enter into the two-year contract in August, with an option to extend it into a third year. The amount of the contract has been redacted from documents obtained through the access to information request.

Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, seen here in a file photo, said the recruitment and training of bilingual doctors is a priority. (CBC)

According to the Shared Health spokesperson, no doctors have been recruited to Manitoba yet, “as the [Canadian Health Labs] contract is in the early stages.”

With “guidance and direction from the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Manitoba,” Canadian Health Labs has “assigned dedicated recruiters in a number of countries and is planning virtual recruitment events to offer information about physician opportunities in Manitoba,” said the spokesperson.

Earlier this week, the provincial and federal governments announced Manitoba will get $633 million in federal health-care and long-term care funding to help the province hire more staff.

Some of the money pledged to Manitoba will help the NDP government — elected in October — uphold its promise to hire a total of 400 more physicians, 300 nurses in Winnipeg and 300 more nurses in rural areas, along with 200 paramedics and 100 home-care workers, the feds and the province announced Thursday.

In a statement sent to CBC News prior to that, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the recruitment and training of bilingual doctors is a priority.

Asagwara alleged that the PC government “disrespected health-care workers” and “failed in their own plan to hire 150 physicians.”

The NDP government’s approach “treats doctors with respect and listens to French and bilingual health organizations and its leaders,” the health minister said.

CBC has asked Canadian Health Labs for comment.