More family physicians could soon be practising in Lethbridge.
Alberta Health Services says it is currently advertising 13 active family medicine positions in the city.
“Eleven applicants have committed to the community and are awaiting their (College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta) assessment,” a statement to Global News from AHS reads in part.
“One of the 11 has commenced the first portion of their assessment which will target their practice start in Lethbridge in early September, with the remainder expected to begin before the end of December.”
Campbell Clinic manager Tim Neufeld is happy to hear reinforcements are on the way but says even more are needed.
“On the high, (there) would be about 1,500 patients per doctor. That’s for a full-time doctor and that would be with a full caseload,” Neufeld said.
During an April meeting, the City of Lethbridge Cultural and Social Standing Policy Committee heard that an estimated 33,000 residents are without a family doctor.
“It’s not going to solve the whole issue, but it’s definitely a very positive step in the right direction,” Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf said.
“Roughly speaking, that’s about 30 to 35 per cent of the doctors that we need to get to where we were before.”
Last month, the city approved $15,000 in funding for a family physician marketing and recruitment campaign in partnership with the Chinook Primary Care Network, AHS and Economic Development Lethbridge.
According to Coun. Jenn Schmidt-Rempel, it’s something the city needs to carry forward.
“We want to always be recruiting doctors to our community in new and innovative ways so that we don’t see ourselves in this kind of position again,” Schmidt-Rempel said.
“I would say this is going to be a continuing project.”
A sentiment echoed by those in the industry.
“Hopefully, we’ve reached the end of doctors leaving Lethbridge and we can start building that up,” Neufeld said.