A new payment model for family doctors in Manitoba has proven effective at retaining and recruiting physicians to the province, with more than 100,000 new patients connected to ongoing care providers since it launched last spring.

Doctors Manitoba, the group representing physicians in the province, reviewed the Family Medicine Plus funding model, finding it contributed to a net gain of 184 family doctors practising in the province over a one-year period.

They include both new recruits and physicians who returned to working and accepting new patients in family medicine, said group president Dr. Nichelle Desilets.

“What I’m hearing from family doctors is that Family Medicine Plus is a game-changer,” she said.

“While family medicine and primary care is still felt to be undervalued, we are

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