Ste Anne doctor wins Physician of the Year

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This article was published 08/03/2024 (436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A doctor from Ste Anne has won the 2024 Doctors Manitoba Award for Physician of the Year and he couldn’t be more excited.

“I think it’s a great recognition from my peers. From physicians across the province that are members of Doctors Manitoba so that’s quite special. I’ve enjoyed my work and it’s nice that someone recognizes the long hours, the many phone calls and emails at work. That I’m quite excited about,” said Dr. Jose Francois.

Francois was born and raised just outside of Ste Anne and went to University of Sherbrooke in Quebec followed by a residency in Manitoba in the 1990s. During his residency he spent time in Steinbach and Ste Anne doing clinical rotations and after that he set up his practice in St Boniface serving francophone communities in Winnipeg and Southeast Manitoba.

Although he never had a clinic in Ste Anne he did set up a residency training program that served Notre Dame, Ste Anne, and St Boniface. His work with the University of Manitoba involved working with the teaching unit in Steinbach. His field of focus is medicine in rural communities.

“Part of my work has been expanding our rural training and family medicine across the province. We now have most family medicine residents actually trained outside of Winnipeg rather than in Winnipeg. Because the rural needs and northern needs are so high and we recognize that there’s some migration in people over time. So, they may work in rural and then over time migrate to Winnipeg for family reasons. So, we over train in rural with the expectation that some of them will stick (in the rural areas),” he said.

Part of the reason for the doctor shortage in rural communities, according to Francois, is the lack of training of Manitoba doctors and the increase in population that needs a doctor. He said the department of medicine did a major expansion of its residency program where it added 10 seats this past July, adding another 10 seats next July, and an additional 10 seats the following year.

“We’ll be moving from training about 60 residents a year closer to 90 per year in the province of Manitoba,” he said.

The important question of how does a rural community attract a doctor was posed and Francois said the first step is with medical students who should experience life in rural communities. Training in rural communities where residents spend the bulk of two years in a rural setting where they can become comfortable and “anchor themselves within the community” is key. Making sure that the practice environment is attractive with supports from other healthcare providers in a team environment is also needed.

“We’ve seen growth in income in the last few years. Manitoba is still quite an attractive place when you consider cost of living. Housing costs here are not quite as high as large urban centres but paying people well is part of it, but I think the practice environment is the other piece that is really important. When we recruit people we need to think about their spouses, their kids so that’s also an important thing considering spouse employment opportunities, for kids it’s the environment, communities, schools, sports, after school activities, those are the things that anchor people in their work its not just all about pay.”

Aside from working on resident training, Francois also has been working on the Manitoba health care system. The last few years of his work has invoved navigating the COVID pandemic, helping practices adopt virtual care, focusing on the future of primary care, and moving team based care approaches forward.

“These have also been also really important things in my work that I think will continue over the next few years, and hopefully will help primary care regain some of its strength, and our numbers of people working in the province will increase,” he said.

Over the past few years, Francois has been working with Manitoba Health and Doctors Manitoba to develop a new pay model for physicians named Family Medicine Plus, which starts in April.

“It hopefully will result in family physicians that are doing the work of supporting patients over the long term to feel like they’re valued and it’s not just a revolving door of patient after patient. It’s also recognizing that really important work to manage people’s chronic disease with them or do the follow-ups that are needed between visits. I think that’s an important piece.”

The other focus Francois is working on with the province is building team based approaches in primary care, which involve expanding health teams of medical professionals, such as nurses, physio-therapists, occupational therepists, and other health care professionals, and have them working together to support a patient’s needs. This should free up doctors to see more patients.

“Those are the changes (happening right now). Exciting times in family medicine,” he said.

As for young people considering entering the field of medicine, Francois said it’s very rewarding to help people.

“There’s been lots of negative talk about how hard the work is and how long the hours are and the administrative burdens, but working with people and helping people is very, very satisfying. Even though I do a lot of administrative work in my roles at the university and the health system, the thing I still enjoy the most is my time in clinic and seeing patients that I’ve gotten to know over many years and know their family members and it is kind of nice to know that you make a difference in people’s lives.”