December 18, 2025

Welcome to a special issue of Vitals, where we look back at the year’s top stories along with recommendations to ensure you don’t miss out and make the most of your membership. 

Today’s Year-in-Review is 2,150 words, or an 8-minute read. 

As we look back at 2025, we want to say thank you to all physicians, resident doctors, and students. You work incredibly hard to do your best at every turn, and Manitobans benefit from that each and every day.

Watch this short message of appreciation from our President, Dr. Nichelle Desilets, about the year we had and the year ahead.

DRMB Limited Hours: The Doctors Manitoba office will operate with limited hours between December 24 and January 4, but will have coverage in place for urgent issues. During this period, please direct any and all urgent issues to practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca for support. 

Record-Breaking Year

2025 shaped up to be a record-breaking year for doctor recruitment. The largest ever net increase of doctors was reported by CPSM, and a national report from CIHI confirmed Manitoba had the biggest increase in doctors of any province. All this means Manitoba is finally closing the gap on reaching the national average for physicians per capita, though we’re not there yet.

The physician shortage has been the top concern among physicians, which is why it’s a top priority for Doctors Manitoba. With your advice, we’ve advocated for more training, recruitment and retention, and we’re seeing this pay off. 

• As of today, Manitoba has 3,644 doctors! That’s up nearly 300 from two years ago.

While 2025 was a turning point for recruitment, we need 2026 to be the year of retention. 

Reports show Manitoba retains fewer medical students than other provinces and loses practicing doctors at a higher rate too. Our own monitoring suggests 43% of doctors are considering moving away, retiring, or reducing their hours. 

While we continue pressing for system changes to help, like reducing administrative burden, please consider how you can help with retention:

➡️ Refer early career physicians, or residents in their last year, to our New to Practice program for individualized support. 

➡️ Learn more about peer support, and how it can help physicians experiencing burnout and distress in the workplace. 

➡️ Develop skills to build healthy workplace culture, by signing up for Inclusive Leadership and our other leadership development offerings.

Holiday Coverage Woes

Several hospitals are facing physician coverage challenges, and even partial closures, this holiday season. In fact, it appears one more hospital this winter has lost 24/7 coverage, in Killarney. Here’s where things stand overall:

• 25 hospitals are expected to maintain 24/7 ER or Urgent Care operations, though some larger sites will be down to single physician coverage for extended periods. This includes Winnipeg's 7 sites. Last December, 26 had 24/7 operations. 
• 25 hospitals have ERs operating with limited hours or periodic closures, up from 24 last December.
• 28 hospitals continue to have ER services suspended or closed indefinitely. 

We will continue our public awareness campaign at RuralCare.ca about service disruptions this season and advise the public in Winnipeg to anticipate longer wait times due to physician vacancies in our Urgent Care Centres as well. 

Thank you to all physicians for stretching to maintain coverage wherever possible. It’s not fair for the system to expect this of you. 

➡️ Share RuralCare.ca so the public can get updated information and links to local ER schedules. 

➡️ Contact us in confidence with concerns about physician coverage in your hospital or clinical area by emailing practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca. 

The End of Sick Notes

It’s finally happening! While Manitoba was one of the last provinces to finally agree to limit sick notes, the rules expected early next year will be the strongest in Canada. With your help, we:

• Built the case to demonstrate sick notes are not effective but wasteful.
• Built the consensus among employers and unions for change.
• Built the tools to help employers start transitioning away from sick notes, with over 200 already registered for a webinar we are holding with CPHR Manitoba in January!

➡️ Help eliminate sick notes by adding this short notice to your sick note template. This will let employers know sick notes will be eliminated in 2026, and that physicians have created tools to help them phase them out. 

Adopting AI Scribes

2025 was a big year for artificial intelligence in all industries, including medicine. AI scribes became widely available, with huge potential to reduce charting time by 30+ minutes per day. Our survey last winter found only 6% of doctors were using an AI scribe, but 60% were interested. 

So, we went to work, creating an AI scribe resource hub with a list of vetted vendors, partnering with Canada Health Infoway on a program for primary care doctors, and pressing Shared Health for AI scribe solutions in hospitals. 

➡️ Check out our AI Scribe Hub for resources to help you learn more and get started. 

➡️ Once you’ve spent time learning about AI Scribes, claim our AI Scribe Learning Rebate to get $500 back to recognize the time took away from practice for self-learning. 

Supporting Good Causes

Manitoba is once again the most generous province in the country. Physicians in Manitoba are no exception! 

• Together, we raised more than $30,000 for Team Broken Earth, the charity championed by our 2025 Humanitarian award winner Dr. Leif Sigurdson. 
• We raised $3,290 for school breakfast programs through the Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba
• We’re well on our way to raising $150,000 for a new student bursary, created for third- and fourth-year students at the Max Rady College of Medicine facing financial hardship and offers direct support so students can focus on learning and not making ends meet. 

The year is not over, and we could use your help to get us to our $150,000 goal for our student bursary. 

➡️ Donate now to support our student bursary, and reduce barriers for those facing financial hardship. We are 91% of the way there. Help us close the gap! Plus, donate this month to get a tax receipt for 2025!

Economic and Practice Support

While this has been a disruptive and unpredictable year for the Canadian economy – primarily due to trade uncertainty with the U.S. – our current Physician Services Agreement has brought stability to funding for physician services. This includes an across-the-board increase of 2% to all fee-for-service and alternate funded remuneration this past April, and another 2% increase will come in April 2026.

While the current agreement does not expire until March 2027, preparations are well underway to identify concerns and priorities for the next Agreement. Town Halls have already been held for many specialties with the remainder slated for early in the new year. They have been essential for us to hear directly from you as we take stock and look ahead. Thank you for your participation and engagement.

➡️ Watch for a survey this February to help us validate and prioritize issues that need to be addressed in the next Agreement. In the meantime, you can contact us confidentially with your concerns by emailing practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca. 

Physician and Learner Health

We have been at work enhancing our support for the professional, mental, and physical well-being of the medical community. Our goal is to ensure every physician and medical learner in Manitoba has the support they need to stay healthy, resilient and thriving in medicine.

Recognizing that family stability is vital to physician health, our Physician and Family Support Program now provides counselling and service navigation support to members’ dependent children 12 years of age and older. To ensure you and your loved ones have the greatest support possible, we welcomed new staff members to the team and broadened Dr. Alexis Botkin’s role as Medical Lead for Physician Health and Wellness. Her expanded portfolio focuses on system-level wellness and long-term support for physicians and learners across Manitoba. 

➡️ Check in on your well-being through the Canadian Medical Protective Association’s Physician Well-Being Index (WBI). Developed and validated by researchers at the Mayo Clinic, this quick, confidential tool allows doctors to accurately measure six dimensions of your distress and well-being. The WBI provides a way to see how your experience compares with your peers across Canada.

Your Safety

This year, we saw an increase in very serious safety concerns and incidents at health facilities across Manitoba. Even after efforts to improve safety at HSC this year, this last week has seen news of another physician assaulted, and antisemitic verbal harassment of Jewish colleagues during an HSC Hanukkah ceremony. 

These are the stories that make the news, but we know many more do not. Physical and psychological safety are critical, and we have found that women, racialized, Indigenous, Jewish, LGBTQIA+ and internationally-trained members report safety incidents at higher rates. 

We have been working diligently with our partners in the health system and government to ensure your recommendations and expert feedback inform how solutions are developed. We will continue to press for further improvements with a continuous, steadfast approach into 2026 and beyond.

➡️ Download the Shared Health Safety App currently available for Health Science Centre staff, and watch next year as it gets rolled out to other hospitals. Please continue to share your feedback with us by writing to practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca. 

Fighting Misinformation & Promoting Good Health

Medical misinformation is on the rise. New data out this year found one third of Canadians turn to the Internet for health information due to the doctor shortage. They also found nearly 80% of Canadians are highly or moderately susceptible to believing misinformation.

Our GettingHealthy.ca public awareness initiative brings reliable information to Manitobans from a source they can trust: doctors. 

This year we added new content to our site about a range of topics, including dispelling misinformation that Tylenol use during pregnancy causes autism. For the first time, we also hired medical students to take Getting Healthy on the road, meeting Manitobans in person with a fun, interactive display.

➡️ Try the Getting Healthy Guide so you see what your patients can see. With just your age and gender, you get a personalized checklist on everything from immunizations, to screenings, to health concerns to raise with your doctor. Try the guide here!

➡️ Become a contributor! Lend your expertise! We can help draft your piece and will provide you an honorarium. Let us know at gettinghealthy@doctorsmanitoba.ca.

Physician Autonomy

Physicians across Canada are concerned about recent government decisions and the impact they will have on physicians’ ability to care for patients. This is particularly true of legislation in Alberta which restricts evidence-based gender-affirming care for youth and Quebec’s Bill 2, which aims to unilaterally cut physician remuneration and impose performance targets.

A new national survey found 43% of physicians say they do not feel trusted or respected by governments.

• 76% of Alberta physicians and 84% of Quebec physicians say they do not feel trusted or respected.
• Overall, 80% say recruitment and retention of physicians will suffer because of growing government oversight of medical practice.
• 66% anticipate a decline in patient care quality.

Manitoba faces less political interference at the moment, but these national trends underscore the need to stay vigilant and ensure physician advice guides changes to the health care system. 

➡️ We will continue to monitor these trends closely throughout 2026, and invite you to send us your concerns to us by emailing practiceadvice@doctorsmanitoba.ca. 

Member Connections

Connecting with each other as physicians and learners is always important. As we see governments arbitrarily interfering in medicine in other jurisdictions, it’s important for physicians to stay connected. Over the last year, we’ve organized more events for physicians and learners than we can remember, and it was worth it!

• We visited physicians in all four rural and northern regions, including Brandon, Steinbach, Selkirk, Ste. Anne, Niverville, St. Pierre,-Jolys, Dauphin, Russell, Roblin, Swan River, Minnedosa, Neepawa, The Pas, and Thompson. 
• We held a family-friendly event at the Zoo for early career physicians, with over 380 in attendance, and we brought over 100 doctors together at our Getting Healthy golf tournament too!
• With a record 515 participants in our Mentorship Program, we organized fantastic events that help medical learners and practicing physicians accelerate personal growth and develop lasting connections that better Manitoba's medical culture.
• Our unique HeartBeat event reflected on inequities and mistreatment within the profession’s history, while celebrating the diversity and excellence of physicians today in Manitoba. Watch this video that celebrates the professional and personal diversity of Manitoba’s medical community! 
• Our Awards Gala was our biggest ever, with 700 in attendance to celebrate our amazing 2025 award winners!

We’re looking ahead to 2026, we have more events planned. Stay tuned to vitals for opportunities to connect. Save these important dates!

➡️ May 1 for our Annual Awards Gala in Winnipeg

➡️ April 15 for our Annual General Meeting and evening connection event in Portage la Prairie