$700K to lock in doctors

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This article was published 29/01/2024 (586 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shadi Rezazadeh is putting up $700,000 of her own money to ensure more Manitobans have a family doctor.

The Winnipeg doctor practises at Trucare Medical clinic on McPhillips Street. Earlier this month, she took over the lease of the former Rivergrove Medical Clinic on north Main Street.

She is actively trying to recruit 10 doctors from the United Kingdom, where salaries are lower.

“I’ve done this out of my own pocket. I’ve received no government help,” Rezazadeh said. “That’s how I have five doctors coming (to Rivergrove) and the others to Trucare.

“Each doctor is $70,000 and 10 of them is $700,000 — and that’s from my own personal and my family savings,” she said.

Rezazadeh said if she doesn’t recruit physicians from overseas, her clinic on McPhillips Street wouldn’t be able to care for all of its patients and she wouldn’t be able to reopen Rivergrove. Currently, it can only accommodate walk-in patients due to a lack of doctors.

Rezazadeh said her efforts are starting to get noticed; on Wednesday she is scheduled to meet with Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara to talk about it.

Across the country, there is a shortage of doctors, and it is especially acute in terms of family doctors.

Doctors Manitoba released a report in 2023 that showed the province has the fewest number of family doctors per capita in the country: 111 for every 100,000 Manitobans.

The organization said the Canadian average is 124 doctors per 100,000, meaning the province would have to hire 175 more family physicians just to get to the national average.

Doctors Manitoba released a document titled Our Prescription for Improving Health Care, which showed that not only did the province have to be more competitive in terms of recruitment incentives, but it also has to streamline the process to get physicians here.

Doctors Manitoba spokesman Keir Johnson said the organization sat down with the health minister earlier this month to explain its concerns and priorities.

“(The minister) was very receptive to the ideas about recruiting and retaining physicians, especially considering Manitoba has the lowest family physicians per capital in the nation,” Johnson said.

“We told the minister an all-in approach is needed, with everyone working together in a coalition to ensure we are collectively putting our best foot forward with each and every physician interested in coming to our province to care for Manitobans.”

Doctors Manitoba has asked the province to try to convince the federal government to make the immigration process easier for foreign-educated physicians.

“Specifically, we asked the government to declare an extreme shortage of physicians and ask to waive the federal Labour Market Impact Assessment requirement, a costly and time-consuming bureaucratic delay in recruiting physicians from abroad,” Johnson said.

“Quebec already has such an exemption in place.”

Molly McCracken, interim spokeswoman for the Manitoba Health Coalition, said Rezazadeh recruitment efforts show “Manitoba is in need of doctors and all levels of government need to work together to bring in more doctors to our province.”

For her part, Rezazadeh said she knows she is competing for doctors with Ontario and British Columbia. That’s why she has to spice up her offer.

“I have to buy them flight tickets, whether for themselves or, if they have a family, for their entire family,” she said.

“I also pay for the first month of housing, the first month for a car, and I also pay a signing bonus of $17,500 each. That’s after I pay $40,000 to a recruitment agency and an immigration lawyer.

“It’s not my job to find doctors, but if I don’t pay for the first month, we lose them to another province,” she said.

In return, the doctors sign three-year contracts to work for her. She is able to recoup her costs through a portion of the fees for service earned by the doctors.

She said at the end of the three-year contract, each doctor usually leaves to work elsewhere, having earned the right to practise in Canada.

Rezazadeh said the first doctor will start seeing patients at the McPhillips Street clinic on the weekend, while the first doctor at Rivergrove will see patients in mid-February. Others will arrive in March, April and June.

“We already have a list (at Rivergrove) of 1,000 people who want a doctor,” she said.

“There’s nobody else they can go to. It’s not just our clinic… I really appreciate they are giving me this opportunity to speak with the health minister and how we can fix the problem.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca