Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) is adding new medical staff, but efforts to recruit and retain workers remain ongoing.
Since the province established its Health Care Retention and Recruitment Office in 2024, 18 doctors have joined the Westman region in different areas.
“We’ve got some family providers; we also have specialists; we have doctors in the ER. We’ve made a point for the retention and recruitment office to really laser focus on the areas where we know there’s a great need,” said Manitoba Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara at a press conference in Brandon on Thursday.
Six more doctors are expected to join PMH over the next six months, but Asagwara said the region continues to face some of the province’s biggest staffing challenges.
“The geography here in terms of distance site to site the needs are very unique. And so Prairie Mountain Health and the Northern Regional Health Authority have some of our greatest staffing challenges by far.”
But those challenges mean there is also opportunity, said PMH CEO Treena Slate.
“There are opportunities within our local training programs. We know if we can train locally, we can recruit and retain locally.”
Asagwara noted the 20 residency training seats for doctors in Brandon, which the government expanded from 10 seats to 20 in 2025.
With people training in the city, Slate said ensuring they see the value of Brandon is key.
“We need to do a really good job of selling ourselves in terms of what we have to offer.”
The government also announced it’s recruited 137 physicians province-wide since the start of 2024.
Those numbers factor in doctors who have retired or left the industry.
While recruiting is one step, Asagwara explained how the province will ensure health workers remain in the province, especially in rural and remote areas.
“We have been helping doctors modernize resources to sites and personal records for the benefit of retention.”
Since pledging to hire 400 net new doctors for its mandate, the provincial government is 30 doctors short of its target, which Asagwara said will be well surpassed come election time.
Despite this, the provincial government is not letting its foot off the gas for health-care recruitment and retention to ensure access for patients is easier and closer to home.
“We know having a family doctor can help ensure people don’t end up in the ER because they lack access to primary care or wait until they become so sick that emergency care is needed. So there’s still more work for us to do.
