BRANDON — The mayors of two Westman municipalities say they’re hopeful new doctors will arrive in the next few months.
Janice Smith, mayor of Killarney Turtle-Mountain, said recruitment efforts have attracted two international doctors, while in Hamiota, Mayor Randy Lints said a doctor who enjoyed her residency there has requested to come back for good.
“We’re getting ahead of the curve,” Lints said.
Waterford Global, a Winnipeg recruiter hired by Killarney Turtle-Mountain, found two doctors for the community eight years ago. Smith said the firm is in the final phase of bringing in two more physicians.
The first doctor to sign a return of service agreement is Dr. Jim Heppinstal from the United Kingdom. He, his wife and their five children will arrive in Canada Aug. 30 and hope to be organized in Killarney for the start of school, said Smith.
“The other doctor, Dr. Dominic Hennessy, has signed his return of service agreement,” Smith said. “He has given his six-month notice at his practice in the U.K., so that puts him here at the end of October or November.
It could be the end of 2024 before the recruiter finds a new doctor for Hamiota, added Lints, and that’s why he’s looking at other sources.
Three full-time physicians and one part-time doc treat patients at the Hamiota District Health Centre from surrounding communities that have lost primary health centres, including Rivers, Shoal Lake and Birtle.
Killarney may have been the first municipality in western Manitoba to hire a recruiting firm to find doctors, but 10 years ago the towns of Pinawa, Whitemouth and Lac du Bonnet in the Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority were the first in the province to acquire doctors from Waterford Global.
Prairie Mountain Health takes part in the international medical graduates program and brings the doctors to Westman to help ease the doctor shortage. They sign a return-of-service agreement with the health region, take the medical program for international medical graduates at the University of Manitoba, and after passing the one-year training course, will be licensed to practise medicine in the province.
Smith said she knows about the program but prefers the recruitment process because it gives them “more control.”
Prairie Mountain Health is splitting the cost of the recruiting firm for each community, which can be anywhere from $90,000 to $150,000 per doctor.
The Hamiota District Health Centre Foundation is covering the cost there, and in Killarney, council has put a permanent line in the budget for recruiting physicians.
— Brandon Sun