The first female president of the Manitoba Medical Association (MMA) has worked both sides of the hospital hallway, first as a nurse at the Grace General Hospital in Winnipeg and now as a general practitioner at University of Manitoba Health Services. "I decided to become a doctor because I wanted to know more about medicine," says Dr. Lorraine Hilderman, who returned to Winnipeg to attend medical school in 1980, leaving a nursing job in Omaha, Nebraska. FIGURE
Figure. Hilderman: Manitoba has to become more competitive to attract doctors
"As a former nurse, I had a slight advantage over some of my fellow students in that I knew the medical lingo," says Hilderman. "Med students really have a tough time deciphering it."
Now, as the new MMA president, Hilderman will have to unravel a tangled web of problems that besiege Manitoba's doctors. One of her priorities is to address the problem of physician retention in a province where 66% of family practice residents and at least as many specialists leave upon finishing their residencies.
"It costs taxpayers $100 000 to train a family practitioner and many times that to train a specialist," says Hilderman. "We have to become competitive with other provinces if we are going to keep doctors in Manitoba."
Although the MMA recently negotiated 2 arbitration awards with the government, negotiations with Manitoba Health continue concerning at least 26 separate disputes. Hilderman says these range from the funding of department heads to providing medical services such as dialysis in rural and northern Manitoba.
Hilderman is known at Manitoba Health for her tough negotiating skills when a contract is on the table. "I'm not a pushover," she says, "but I'm more comfortable fighting for a contract in a boardroom than I am speaking to the media or to a large group of people.
"I don't think of myself as someone special," she adds. "I'm just a doctor doing my job."