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Dear Member,
Last month, I started my term as President of Doctors Manitoba for the 2025–26 year. It’s a privilege to advocate for the resources and support you need to thrive in medicine.
Today, I am reaching out with some important updates for the medical community in Manitoba.
The Year Ahead – Your Priorities on Our Radar
The year ahead promises to be busy as we look ahead and shape our priorities for the next few years. I will be listening and engaging with you—because your input will help guide one of our most important priorities: preparing for the next Physician Services Agreement (PSA). While the current PSA doesn’t expire until spring 2027—nearly two years away—we’re starting early to ensure we’re ready.
This fall, our team will invite practicing physicians to join advisory groups, a proven approach we’ve used in the past that helps us identify and assess complex and technical issues to raise with Manitoba Health. We also know this can feel exclusive to some members, so we’re adding new ways for everyone to receive updates and share input throughout the process.
In the meantime, we’re inviting you to send your big-picture feedback about the next PSA to our staff team by emailing practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca. Please include details about your specialty, focus, and location.
In advance of these consultations, we conducted a pulse check in our annual survey to see how the current PSA has been working since it was signed in 2023. Overall, the feedback was very positive:
✔️Increases throughout the four-year Agreement are helping keep funding competitive and address rising costs, including a 2% increase this year.
✔️New remuneration models are supporting family physicians and specialists.
✔️We’ve seen record recruitment, hitting the 3,500-doctor milestone this spring.
✔️New and enhanced benefits are improving retention and supporting practice costs.
This progress is promising—but not universal. For some practice settings or specialty groups, there are serious issues that require changes to stabilize and improve your practice environment and to ensure you are fairly remunerated for the essential care you provide to Manitobans. We want to hear from everyone, especially those feeling left behind. Our mandate is to ensure every physician has the support needed to thrive and deliver exceptional care.
Unity Creates Opportunity
In the first month of my term, I’ve seen how powerful we are when we work together. In a time when the profession is under pressure—across Canada and beyond—our strength comes from unity. When we speak with one voice, we’re more likely to succeed in shaping a stronger health system. In other words, unity creates the opportunity to do better for us as physicians and for our patients.
This year, we’ll address issues that span across the profession. One major focus: the referral and requisition process. Physicians often collaborate to deliver care, however the current system makes that harder than it should be. We’ve heard from both referring and consulting physicians that this process is broken and draining valuable time. That’s why we’ll host a major summit this fall to tackle these issues and recommend better solutions. Watch for updates in your Vitals newsletter.
I love practicing medicine in Manitoba, and I’d recommend our province as a place to practice like many of you. But there is certainly much room for improvement. Together, we can push for the changes to reduce burnout, improve retention, and help Manitoba be as doctor-friendly a province as it can be.
I look forward to connecting with you in the year ahead.
Sincerely,
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