A new life for him and his family: Doctor recruited from Britain happy with move to Brandon

When Muhammad Khan landed in Brandon at the start of 2025, he wasn't sure what to expect.

The physician had moved to Manitoba's second-biggest city from the United Kingdom sight unseen, aiming to start a new practice and a new life with his wife and young daughter. 

Khan says he began looking for work in Canada in June 2024, but visa delays, expenses and paperwork made it a difficult journey.

He says he spoke with people "from different parts of Canada … people from Alberta, from Ontario, all over, but none from Brandon."

Out of frustration, he turned to a friend who had a connection with someone working at the Brandon Regional Health Centre, who connected him with people who sold him on taking a job in the city, Khan says.

Khan says he had no idea how in demand doctors are, admitting he was worried he wouldn't get many patients. Already, he's seeing about 25 to 30 patients a day.

"It was a surprise for me, my first day when I started my clinic, people had no family doctor for six years — six years —and they've been going for a same-day walk-in … waiting to see a doctor for three hours," he said.

Khan says the urgent need for doctors in Canada is not reflected in the immigration process.

He secured his position through a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) — an application to the federal government done by a company seeking to hire a person from outside of Canada because they can't fill the job locally — but says it's a lengthy process that can be tricky for physicians and clinics to navigate.

"The urgency is there, then I think things should be very quicker," he said. "[LMIA] is getting much more difficult, which is not reflecting what Canada is going through."

Khan, who originally hails from Pakistan, brings with him more than a decade of health-care experience from the U.K. In 2014 he began working for England's National Health Service, started training to be a family physician in 2017 and began practising in 2021.

However, he says, the job prospects were limited so he began to consider settling in Canada, an appealing prospect because his training would be recognized.

Khan is among four foreign-trained doctors recently hired by Brandon Clinic. Its CEO, Darcy Bell, says they had to look outside of Canada to hire. 

It costs the clinic about $10,000 upfront for each recruiting attempt, but that doesn't guarantee finding a doctor, Bell says. They've had several LMIAs — which last a year — expire before they found a doctor.