WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is offering financial incentives to family and pediatric medical clinics that stay open longer, under a new 18-month pilot project.
Clinics are being offered a 20 per cent premium on billings for services provided on weekends and holidays, as well as on weekdays before and after the normal 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. business hours.
The aim is to reduce burnout among doctors, give patients more flexibility and reduce the strain on hospital emergency departments on evenings and weekends.
"This will ensure primary care providers and pediatricians are readily available to families who need care when they need it most," Health Minister Audrey Gordon said Monday.
Doctors Manitoba, which represents some 4,000 physicians and students, welcomed the move and said about half of its members who took part in a recent discussion on the topic said they would take up the offer.
"It might be able to add some flexibility. So if people wanted to choose their work hours later into the evening or to those typical off-hour periods of time, that actually might be better for their own personal needs or family needs," said Dr. Shelley Anderson, the group's medical lead for physician health and wellness.
Doctors Manitoba had recommended the premium as a way to address doctor retention and recruitment at a time when there is already a shortage of physicians.
"Forty-three per cent of physicians in this province plan on either retiring, relocating to another province or cutting down their clinical practice," said Dr. Kristjan Thompson, the group's board chair.
The province is also funding 40 new undergraduate physician-training seats to produce more doctors, Gordon said. There is also $450,000 for a peer-support program run by Doctors Manitoba to reduce burnout among physicians.
The measures are part of an overall $200-million funding package promised last year to bolster health-care ranks. The Progressive Conservative government, with an election set for October, has been under fire over long wait times that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2023.
Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
