The town of Bruderheim, Alta. spent decades without a pharmacist in the community but this summer, the Bruderheim Pharmacy opened its doors. Now, town officials have their sights set on bringing a doctor in to serve its community as well.
The community, which according to the 2016 Census has 1,308 residents, hasn’t had a pharmacist since the 1930s and has spent the past few years trying to bring a physician into the community. The town is working with the Lamont Health Centre and Rural Alberta Physician Recruitment Program to try and attract a doctor and earlier this month, posted a video to YouTube to try and sell potential applicants on the benefits of living in Bruderheim.
Watch below: A recruitment video posted to YouTube on Sept. 20, 2017 by AlbertaRhPAP as part of an effort to bring a physician to Bruderheim, Alta. (CREDIT: YouTube/AlbertaRhPAP)
While Fort Saskatchewan and Lamont are not far away, and Edmonton is only a 30- to 40-minute drive away, the town’s deputy mayor believes the commute is difficult or inconvenient for some and that a physician in the town would yield positive results.
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“If people have access to that, they’re going to look after themselves,” Judy Schueler said on Wednesday. “If it’s a job to get to the doctor, that may not be as easy.”
The Bruderheim Pharmacy’s owner, Ehab Mohamed, says business has been good since he opened as many town residents have transferred their prescriptions over to him. The pharmacy has space for a physician’s clinic and Mohamed is hopeful a doctor will fill the space.
“It’s not like a luxury or anything,” he said on Wednesday. “It should be something that people have here; have a doctor, have access to medical services.”
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According to Statistics Canada, Bruderheim’s population grew by 13.2 percentage points between 2011 and 2016.
“We’re a small community growing,” Schueler said. “So we’ve got a lot of young families, people who need that physician.”
“It would do a lot for the stability of this community and making people feel like they have their own community as opposed to having to go outside for everything,” said Carmen Uva, who lives in Bruderheim.
-With files from Tom Vernon
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