Manitoba physician highlights why family doctors are leaving

The lack of family doctors in Manitoba is sending rippling effects through the system, according to a family physician who now works in the ER. She shines a light on why family doctors, like her, are leaving the profession.

“If we don’t have family doctors, the whole thing falls apart,” said Dr. Jennifer Anderson, a family physician.

“People have to have their needs met. For me, and I can’t talk for everyone else, but for me, that’s being able to provide for my family, being able to look after my kids, being able to not stress about childcare, and being able to move things around and finding something that fits for my family.”

Dr. Anderson left her family clinic when her son landed in the hospital himself. She realized she could make the same wage working 8-10 shifts a month in the emergency department as she did working around the clock as a family doc.

“I hated to leave my patients. I loved my patients, I loved the wrap-around care. But it didn’t make financial sense. My stress went from 100 to zero. And I could work in an emergency, I could leave work at work, and I could look after my son,” Dr. Anderson explained.

Anderson is a single mother with a special needs child, who says many like her need more flexibility than what family practice offers.

According to a 2023 study, about 200,000 Manitobans were without family doctors. Anderson stresses – without them – the system doesn’t work.

“That contributes to people not getting things addressed until it’s critical. So we get a lot of really sick patients.”

She says another issue with the system is the billing codes, which can encourage some to push patients through in order to pay their bills.

A response from the province references the physicians’ services agreement signed by the previous government in 2023, which included a 50-million increase in renumeration for family medicine. That agreement included new panel payments and billing for indirect clinical time.

They also pointed to a restored rural doctor recruitment fund that gives rural and northern doctors a retention benefit every three years.

But Anderson would like to see more fundamental changes, including a shift to community doctor hubs, like access centres, so when doctors leave, patients are still connected to the centre and the care that comes with it.