It’s 2023 and much like the rest of the province, southern Alberta is still in need of more doctors.
Last year, recruitment efforts were ramped up by Alberta Health Services and several other partners, including the Chinook Primary Care Network and the City of Lethbridge.
In the spring, AHS said there could be 11 new physicians in the city of approximately 100,000 people by the end of 2022.
“As of January 3, 2023 four physicians have begun practicing,” a spokesperson told Global News in a statement Wednesday, adding three began in October while the fourth started in the last six weeks.
It did not say where these doctors were practicing.
“As they work through their CPSA practice readiness assessments (PRA), it is hoped that two more will begin their practice in this month, five between February and April, and the final six between May and July.”
According to the City of Lethbridge, the initial advertising campaign to attract new medical professionals that ran in late summer and early fall had strong results.
“In the first phase, we ran ads targeting cities across Canada with medical schools as our primary audience and physicians/people in the health-care profession in Canada as our secondary audience,” the city said in a statement.
The advertisements were seen close to half-a-million times by approximately 68,000 people, the city said, adding this resulted in more than 12,000 clicks to the health-care recruitment landing page, which has information to help physicians learn more about Lethbridge.
It also has material to connect prospective employees with resources, while aiming to incentivize Lethbridge as a top destination for health-care workers.
“We just started a second phase of marketing, using what we learned from the initial campaign, to refine the audience and continue promoting our community to physicians and health-care workers.”
According to Tim Neufeld, clinic manager at Campbell Clinic, current working physicians are continuing to see the need.
When a new doctors opens a practice, he said they can typically accept 1,000 to 1,500 patients if working full time.
He has heard as many as 40,000 patients are currently unattached.
“The physicians get requests daily and multiple times a day from people that are looking for doctors or with family members that are looking for doctors,” he explained.
“So the relief would just come in the way of being able to provide them with options to find a new doctor.”
Obstetrics and Gynecology
A shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists, also knowns as OBGYNS, is continuing to concern local women.
“We do have coverage via locum doctors in hospital, which is really important for people to know,” birth doula Vicki Todd said.
“If they do give birth, there are doctors in hospital to help them.
“However it’s the prenatal care and the post-natal care that is a challenge for people to access at this point.”
Alberta Health Services said it has established a physician-led prenatal clinic at the Chinook Regional Hospital, which is taking patients referred by their primary care physician.
“Efforts are being made to recruit additional obstetrics and gynecology care to support the community,” the AHS statement continued. “Some of the OBGYNs who are on leave from CRH are expected to return later this year.”
“As a whole I think people just need to know where to go,” Todd added.
“The ask is quite large to have people call around for somebody to take care of them during their pregnancy.”
AHS said it values the work its physicians and health-care teams do.
“We remain committed to supporting recruitment and retention efforts to ensure we are there for our patients and families when they need us the most.”