🩺 Disability Tax Form Pilot // Holiday ER Concerns? // HIV Rates in Manitoba // Flu Cases Spiking?

December 5, 2025

This week’s Vitals is 1,736 words or a 7 minute read. If you only have 1 minute, here are the highlights:

Manitoba Pilots Shorter Disability Tax Credit Renewal: Manitoba is now the first province to test a dramatically shorter renewal process thanks to our partnership with the Canada Revenue Agency. We have a sample of the new two-page form and want to hear what you think!
Referral Recommendations: Send us your feedback on draft referral recommendations by December 8 to help improve Manitoba’s referral and consultation system!
Award Nominations Close December 15: Don’t miss your chance to nominate a colleague for the 2026 Doctors Manitoba annual awards, the highest honours in the Manitoba medical community.
Holiday ER Concerns? We are checking in with physicians who work in ERs and Urgent Cares across Manitoba about coverage and closures. Take a short survey to ensure we have the status right in your hospital.
Billing Info Requests and Audits: Getting a request from provincial authorities for a patient’s chart can feel concerning and unsettling. Our team is experienced with this and here to help.
HIV Rates in Manitoba: New data coinciding with World AIDS Day and Indigenous AIDS Awareness week show Manitoba has the highest recorded HIV infection rate in Canada in 2024. Our medical community is working hard to ensure every person gets access to the timely care they need and deserve despite a significant rise in systemic barriers.

There’s still a chance to donate to the Doctors Manitoba Student Bursary! Help medical students facing financial hardship focus on learning, not on making ends meet. Donate today!

TOP STORIES

Manitoba Pilots Shorter DTC Renewal Form

The Disability Tax Credit (DTC) form has long been one of the top administrative burdens cited by physicians. Manitoba is now the first province to test a dramatically shorter renewal process, thanks to our partnership with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

What’s new: Starting December 2025, the CRA is piloting a two-page DTC renewal form in Manitoba, replacing the full 16-page T2201 for eligible patients whose impairments have not significantly improved. The pilot runs until June 2026.

Read about the details in our full coverage.

Full story 386 words / 1.5 minute read

Referral Recommendations

Remember, please submit your feedback on draft recommendations aimed at improving referrals, requisitions, and consultations by December 8! We will soon finalize and submit them in a formal report to Manitoba Health and Shared Health. Thank you to the 200+ individuals who have already responded!

Share your views: The recommendations follow discussions at the Summit held earlier this fall, aimed at making referrals, testing, and consultations work better for both referring and consulting physicians.

Have your say through this survey, where you will be able to review the draft recommendations and provide your feedback.
You will also be able to provide your thoughts on possible changes to CPSM’s Collaborative Care Standard.
The survey should take about 10 minutes.

Recommendations are relevant to all physicians, including suggestions to create a referral directory, introduce true e-referral to move away from unreliable faxes, important considerations for central intakes, improvements to DI ordering, and more.

→ See Recommendations and Provide Feedback by December 8!

Nominations Close December 15!

Don’t miss your chance to nominate a colleague by December 15 for the 2026 Doctors Manitoba annual awards, the highest honours in the Manitoba medical community.

Why it matters: “This is your opportunity to celebrate the dedication, compassion, mentorship, and leadership shown by physicians who truly make an impact here in our province through innovation and improving all Manitobans access to care,” said Dr. Heather Diamond, Chair of the Doctors Manitoba Awards Committee.

Five award categories include Physician of the Year, Distinguished Service, Resident of the Year, the Dr. Jack Armstrong Humanitarian Award, and the Doctors Manitoba Medal of Excellence.
Spotlight this year: Achievements in all areas are welcome, with a special spotlight on innovative efforts to improve access to care, as well as standout mentorship across the medical community.

📆 Deadline: Nominations are open until December 15, 2025.

🎉 Save the date for our Annual Awards Gala, set for Friday, May 1, 2026.

📣 Nominate a colleague today!

Holiday ER Concerns?

We are checking in with physicians who work in ERs and Urgent Cares across Manitoba about coverage and closures. We know the holiday season is particularly challenging for many sites, with reduced physician coverage and more frequent closures at some sites. Our preliminary review of ER schedules finds little has changed since last year.

In Rural and Northern Manitoba

17 ERs remain fully suspended or on long-term closure
25 ERs are functioning with reduced hours or periodic closures, up from 23 last holiday season
18 ERs are expected to be reliably open 24/7, down from 20 last December

In Winnipeg, all seven ERs and Urgent Cares are reliably open, however several sites are struggling with reduced physician coverage, including many shifts with only single coverage available.

What’s the status in your hospital? Take this short survey to ensure we have the status right in your hospital.

Take our survey here.

We will continue to use your feedback to advocate for more resources for our ERs and Urgent Cares.

Billing: Additional Information Requests and Audits

When processing claims, Manitoba Health may hold a fee-for-service claim and request more information regarding the service. Manitoba also has the right to audit past claims. In both scenarios, Doctors Manitoba is here to help. Getting a request from provincial authorities for a patient’s chart can feel concerning and unsettling. Our team is experienced with this and here to help.

Bottom line: You don’t need to navigate this alone. Email us in confidence at practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca.

Read our full coverage here.

Full story 207 words / 1 minute read

HIV in Manitoba: Rising Rates, Awareness, and How Physicians Can Help

Manitoba continues to face one of the highest and fastest-growing HIV rates in Canada. New figures were released this week coinciding with World AIDS Day and Indigenous AIDS Awareness Week show Manitoba had the highest HIV infection rate in Canada (excluding Quebec) with 19.5 per 100,000 people infected.

Why it’s happening: The dramatic increase in cases includes a growing share that involve people facing significant social, economic and structural challenges. Many patients are presenting late, with complications of advanced HIV or unable to make it to follow-up appointments. Health care providers are working hard together to ensure every person gets access to the timely care they need and deserve.

What physicians can do:

Share resources from the HIV is Here campaign, launched by the WRHA Healthy Sexuality and Harm Reduction team, Nine Circles, and community partners.
Offer HIV testing routinely.
Continue proactive conversations about sexual health and well-being.

Full story 567 words / 2.5 minute read

Respiratory Virus Season Update

Manitoba is seeing early, significant influenza activity, and physicians may field more questions from patients as the season ramps up. Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s Chief Provincial Public Health Officer told CTV News this week there is significant influenza activity, with Influenza A H3N2 as the predominant subtype.

📈 Respiratory virus surveillance:

Flu cases started rising significantly in mid-November. Last week (ending Nov 29) had the highest count yet.
Manitoba continues to see year-round COVID transmission, with no clear seasonal pattern emerging yet.
RSV activity remains low at this point in the season.

Read our full coverage here.

Full story 236 words / 1 minute read

Phenomenal Physician

Canada has one of the highest rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the world, affecting 300,000+ people. A new global study led by Dr. Charles Bernstein offers the first comprehensive look at how much countries spend on IBD care and where patients are falling through the cracks.

🌍 What’s new: The research, published in Gastroenterology, brings together international data to map out how health systems approach IBD and where investments could make the biggest difference for patients.

Read the full story on UM Today.

HEALTH SYSTEM UPDATES

CMV Test Now Part of Newborn Screening

As of December 1, the Manitoba Newborn Screening Program (NBS) includes a test for congenital newborn cytomegalovirus (CMV).

The details:

Screen-positive infants will be automatically referred to Pediatric Infectious Diseases at HSC Children’s Hospital, in addition to being reported to the ordering practitioner.
Screening results will be available in eChart along with all other NBS results.
Please remember to complete newborn screening cards accurately. The highest rate of reporting failure is as a result of missing or incorrect identifiers.

Learn more here.

New Requirement for Maternal Serum Screen

Effective January 1, 2026, the Genetics and Metabolism Program will no longer accept referrals for patients with a positive maternal serum screen (MSS) for Down syndrome or trisomy 18 unless gestational age has been confirmed by ultrasound.

Next steps: Please request an urgent dating ultrasound from Diagnostic Imaging for any patient with a positive MSS based on LMP or examination as outlined by this updated flow chart. In order to ensure that the request is triaged appropriately, please use the following indication on the requisition: Indication for US: “Dating required to interpret a positive MSS result.”

Learn more here.

Become an MMI Rater

The Max Rady College of Medicine is recruiting raters for its 2026 Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) process. This is an essential step in evaluating future medical students’ readiness for compassionate, competent care.

👥 Who can apply: Physicians, clinicians, faculty, and staff are invited to participate.

🖋️ How to apply: Complete the MMI Rater Registration – Physician, Clinician, Faculty and Staff form and the optional MMI Evaluator Survey.

🕓 Deadline: Register by Friday, December 19, 2025.

📧 Questions? Contact UGME.admissions@umanitoba.ca

DI Viewer Now Live

Shared Health’s DI Viewer upgrade went live on December 1. You can see our earlier coverage about the transition in our story here.

Please remember, a quick restart is required for the changes to take effect.

Simply exit and reopen the DI Viewer to apply the update.
If you’ve bookmarked the old link, check the DI Viewer – Quick Reference Guide to update it.

⚙ Tap & Go users cannot access the upgraded viewer yet, but can continue using the legacy viewer with no service interruption.

Let us know how the upgrade works for you. Email feedback to p racticeadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca.

Physicians at Health Links

A physician was added to the Health Links–Info Santé program in November, available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Later in December, another clinician will join the service.

By the numbers: Health Links–Info Santé receives on average 400 calls per day.

Of those calls, an average of 40 patients are triaged to emergency departments each day.
In the first 10 days of the new physician service, 160 patients were transferred to speak with a doctor.
Only 10 of those patients were triaged to an emergency department.

The program is still recruiting family physicians who are interested in learning more about the service and opportunities. More information is available in our November 6 newsletter.

Expanded Virtual Medicine Ward

In an expansion of the province’s Virtual Medicine Ward program, Shared Health has hired four more nurses, with one additional nursing position and three clerk positions to be filled. What began as a pandemic response model is now becoming a standard option for patients who are stable enough to be treated from home and involves daily virtual check-ins from nurses and physicians, remote symptom and vital-sign monitoring through tablets and medical devices, as well as in-home supports such as IV therapy and home oxygen when required.

We invite you to share your feedback on the program with us at practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca.

Learn more here.

Manitoba Adds Training Seats for Lab and X-Ray Techs

The Manitoba government is doubling the number of Manitoba students who can train as combined laboratory and X-ray technologists (CLXTs) through Saskatchewan Polytechnic beginning in January 2026, securing five additional seats to help address diagnostic staffing shortages across rural and northern communities.

Learn more here.

DRMB IN THE NEWS

We’re in the news ensuring physician voices are heard by Manitobans!

Our Sick of Sick Notes campaign and ensuing policy recommendations submitted to the province led the government to announce legislation that will prevent employers from asking workers for sick notes for absences of seven days or less.

The Free Press Editorial Board highlighted the new legislation as a significant step toward improving doctors’ administrative burden and amplified our position that physicians must be fully consulted about any changes to the administration of health care.
HR Consultant Tory McNally wrote most employers had “no idea” their policies were contributing to physicians spending 36,000 hours every year on writing sick notes instead of patients and are by and large supportive of the cause.

Doctors Manitoba has teamed up with HR professionals and will launch a tool kit and webinars to support employers as they transition away from sick notes in the coming months.

PRACTICE OPPORTUNITIES

Doctors Manitoba’s job board has more than 15 new practice opportunities for physicians, including at Bonavista Medical, Virden Health Centre, Neepawa Health Centre, Trucare Minor Injury and Sport Medicine Clinic, and River East Family Wellness Centre, along with dozens more previously listed. Check it out!

Placing a job ad on our site is free – add one here.