One year after the Manitoba government hired a staffing agency to bring 150 doctors to work in the province, not a single physician has arrived. Shared Health, which oversees health-care delivery in the province, said no doctors have been brought over and wouldn't answer if any recruits are in the queue. Provincial Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the lack of progress from recruitment firm Canadian Health Labs (CHL) is unfortunate.
"Obviously it's disappointing that the previous government signed a contract with a company that hasn't produced physicians for Manitoba," Asagwara said. The province can terminate or delay the contract, according to a redacted copy Radio-Canada received through a freedom of information request, but Asagwara said the government won't stop the firm from continuing its work. The government only has to pay Canadian Health Labs if it delivers a physician, and the province would be hit with a financial penalty if it cancelled the deal, the minister said.
Cancelling would cost Manitoba Asagwara said it's unfortunate that CHL hasn't been able to recruit any physicians to date, "but I also want to make sure we're not throwing good money after bad," Asagwara said. "We're going to continue to assess this agreement while we take real action and real steps to recruit more doctors." The as-yet fruitless recruitment drive is a marked departure from the optimism provincial officials expressed at a news conference a year ago Wednesday.
At the time, Audrey Gordo.