The Manitoba government is paying a U.S. firm to find emergency room physicians south of the border for temporary posts, largely in rural and northern communities.<\/p>\n
Shared Health, the province\u2019s central health planning body, has teamed up with Utah-based Global Medical Staffing, which has put up five job postings as a start in recent days. The postings tout Manitoba\u2019s natural beauty, including polar bears, beluga whales and the northern lights.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiscover Manitoba where wild beauty, unforgettable wildlife encounters, and vibrant cultural experiences come together in the heart of Canada,\u201d one ad says.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says the amount of overhead costs being paid to the American firm is \u201cminimal.\u201d Shared Health declined to divulge the dollar amount or the number of jobs that will be posted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile contractual details cannot be specified, we can share that the agreement with G.M.S. was signed by Shared Health on March 13, 2026, for a one-year term recruitment agreement,\u201d spokesperson Anya Willis wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
The temporary job posts \u2014 called locums \u2014 are aimed at filling vacancies and reinforcing emergency rooms. The new contracts are for six- to 12-month periods.<\/p>\n
Asagwara said American doctors who come here temporarily could end up making their relocation permanent.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe they\u2019ll be in Russell, maybe they\u2019ll be in Brandon, and they\u2019ll fall in love with the community and they\u2019ll stay,\u201d Asagwara said at a news conference Wednesday in Brandon, where a previously announced critical care centre is set to open this spring.<\/p>\n
The Manitoba government has promised a \u201cBuy Canadian\u201d policy to favour Canadian firms for contracts as a response to U.S.-imposed tariffs, but the policy allows for exceptions.<\/p>\n
Doctors Manitoba, which represents physicians across the province, said it welcomes efforts to recruit and retain doctors, and emergency rooms are where help is needed.<\/p>\n
Emergency room wait times in Manitoba are about 8.5 hours on average \u2014 well above the national rate \u2014 and the number of emergency rooms that have to close temporarily is also higher, the group said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we go outside the city of\u00a0Winnipeg, emergency services are not as persistent and reliable as they are elsewhere,\u201d Dr. Nichelle Desilets, the group\u2019s president said.<\/p>\n
The NDP government announced in January it had attracted 13 U.S.-trained doctors in the previous eight months as part of a recruitment drive.<\/p>\n
Desilets said Manitoba saw a record net gain in doctors last year, but most were family physicians in\u00a0Winnipeg. Retaining doctors and preventing them from being lured elsewhere continues to be a challenge, she added<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we are still seeing shortages in specialist areas as well as rural areas,\u201d Desilets said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Manitoba government is paying a U.S. firm to find emergency room physicians south of the border for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-576145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}