Dozens of U.K. paramedics, doctors show interest in Manitoba: minister

Manitoba could welcome dozens of paramedics and physicians from across the pond after a recruitment effort in the United Kingdom.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said 29 U.K. paramedics have accepted conditional job offers and 24 physicians have received invitation-to-apply letters based on eligibility assessments. The minister pitched Manitoba to health workers in London, Manchester and Birmingham in late April.

Some paramedics could arrive in Manitoba as early as June, Asagwara said Friday, while those who received offers will still need to complete licensing paperwork..

“These early results are encouraging, and we look forward to welcoming more health-care professionals to our province in the months ahead,” Asagwara said.

Manitoba’s health care retention and recruitment office opened in 2024 and is focused on attracting doctors from the U.S., U.K. among other places.

Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, said it makes sense to include paramedics in the campaign considering the severity of the province’s shortage.

Linklater said paramedics have left the province and been recruited to the U.K. over working conditions here, and he believes some of the paramedics coming to Manitoba are returnees.

The positions are geared to rural and northern areas of Manitoba where the shortage is severe, particularly as wildfire season begins and demand for emergency service is expected to ramp up.

“In our view, that’s exactly where the pressure is the greatest, and we’re happy to see them apply for those jobs in those areas,” he said Friday.

While the NDP promised to add 200 net new paramedics during the 2023 election, Linklater said only 18 to 40 have been hired under the NDP watch.

Currently, there are 160 paramedic vacancies.

Linklater said recruiting workers from abroad should be “a bridge, not a foundation” and he questioned why the same incentives aren’t offered to potential paramedics here.

“It’s very conceivable that paramedics here in Manitoba would apply for those types of positions if those incentives were made to them as well.”

He wants the agreements signed by the international recruits to be made public so they can be scrutinized.

“Offers aren’t arrivals, and an arrival isn’t a retained, licensed, practising paramedic in Manitoba … In my view, the test is how many of those are still here in the communities 12 and 24 months from now,” he said.

Tory health critic MLA Kathleen Cook said the government has “fallen dismally short” of their campaign.

“An overseas recruitment trip is perhaps one step, but there’s so much more that they need to be doing right here in Manitoba to recruit and retain paramedics,” she said.

The initiative cost the province $200,000. Asagwara said the last international recruitment mission, which sought out health care workers in the Philippines and was led by the former PC government, cost $3.75 million.

Meanwhile, the province celebrated a milestone Thursday: 3,700 physicians are practising in Manitoba.

That equals 246 physicians per 100,000 residents — an increase when compared to data from Doctors Manitoba last fall, which found there were 225 physicians for every 100,000 Manitobans.

While the data appears to show the number of physicians is growing faster than Manitoba’s wider population, the numbers are preliminary and Doctors Manitoba said it is waiting for national reporting.

Family doctors are more prevalent in Manitoba than they have been in the past, and there is currently no waitlist on Manitoba Health’s “family doctor finder” service, said Dr. Alon Altman, president of Doctors Manitoba.

Retention remains a persistent issue, and Manitoba continues to lose more physicians to other provinces than it gains, said Altman.

“Our own data tells us a large portion of our existing physicians are considering reducing their hours, retiring, or leaving the province within the next three years, and far too many students and residents are considering moving away for other opportunities,” he said. “That’s something that has to change.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca