Doctors Manitoba now led by ex-health minister

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This article was published 16/11/2017 (2351 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former provincial health minister Theresa Oswald has been named the new head of Doctors Manitoba.

Oswald, who currently serves as director of the Women’s Health Clinic, will take over as chief executive officer starting in January. She’ll make her exit from the Winnipeg clinic in the coming weeks.

“I think I can do a good job,” Oswald said in an interview Friday, shortly after the announcement.

“I have a, perhaps uncommon, knowledge of the health-care system and how it works, and how things work at a national stage and what Manitoba’s role can be in that, so I’m quite excited about the opportunity.”

Oswald replaces Robert Cram, who is retiring after seven years as CEO of the organization that represents and advocates for more than 3,000 physicians in the province.

The change comes amid the greatest upheaval to Manitoba’s health-care system in at least two decades. Between trepidation and frustration about ongoing changes to health-care delivery in Winnipeg and concerns about the government’s wage-control bill on physician staffing levels, Oswald, who served as an NDP minister, will have no shortage of issues on which to go head-to-head with the Tory government.

Always, she said, she’ll keep the province’s doctors front of mind.

“My role will be to represent them, to serve them,” she said, “and I will do that to the very best of my ability.”

Although Oswald said she remains committed to women’s health issues, and leaving the Women’s Health Clinic was “not an easy decision,” joining Doctors Manitoba feels like the right move on a personal level.

“Some of the most important times in my life have happened at the elbow of a physician,” she said. “The birth of my son, the loss of both my parents, some palliative-care journeys that I’ve been on.”

Oswald was Manitoba’s minister of health from 2006-2013, and served stints as head of healthy living, and jobs and the economy departments in her 12-plus years as an MLA. She unsuccessfully challenged then-premier Greg Selinger for the party leadership in 2015, and did not run in the 2016 provincial election.

Oswald was chosen for the role after a national search elicited hundreds of interested candidates and, ultimately, more than 50 applicants. It was her knowledge of the province’s health-care system that tipped the scales, said Doctors Manitoba president Aaron Chiu, who noted Oswald’s hiring was a rare unanimous board decision.

“She gets all the issues because she has been there,” he said.

Oswald’s leadership skills, both politically and non-politically, were deciding factors, Chiu said, while stressing despite her NDP past, the role is non-partisan. He said he believes Oswald’s track record for taking a holistic look at issues will serve her well.

A representative for the Women’s Health Clinic said it delivers the news of Oswald’s pending departure with “a mix of sadness and gratitude.”

“(Oswald) played a critical role in the advocacy and implementation of medical abortion at WHC, in addition to many other initiatives,” the representative said. “We cannot thank (her) enough for her enthusiasm, dedication, expertise and motivation.”

The clinic’s board of directors will begin the search for a replacement over the coming months.

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca