After the second round of matching, there are still 22 unfilled family medicine spots in the province according to the Alberta Medical Association (AMA).
“This is the highest in the last 10 years,” AMA president, Dr. fred Rinaldi, explained.
Recent data from the Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) showed 110 unfilled positions across the country and the majority are in family medicine with 28 of the vacant spots in Alberta.
“What it’s saying is learners don’t want to come to Alberta,” Dr. Rinaldi said.
“The climate here isn’t good, there’s a large feeling of distrust and learners choose to go other places.”
Dr Rinaldi noted Manitoba, Saskatchewan and B.C. have no unfilled family medicine spaces.
She said the conflict between the provincial government and doctors over the years has played a part in how doctors feel about working in Alberta and more action is needed to stabilize and support family medicine.
“(There are) a million Albertans without a family physician and no access to primary care — so if new people aren’t coming in, this situation cannot possibly get better,” Dr. Rinaldi said.
At an unrelated news conference Friday, Premier Danielle Smith was asked about the AMA’s concerns.
“They’re right — more action is needed,” Smith said.
“We have $2 billion that we are investing in primary care. We’ve expanded out our residency spaces, we’re expanding out our spaces to train more medical doctors, we’re reducing the barriers across the country to be able to attract more doctors from the rest of the country and we’re also working on international recruitment and foreign credentials recognition.”
Smith called attracting doctors into primary care “a global problem.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the health minister said 93 per cent of the positions in Alberta are filled and this is not the end of the process.
“We will continue working closely with the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary to explore options to fill the remaining positions,” said Scott Johnston, press secretary for Jason Copping.
“The universities will be filling as many (spots) as possible through a post-matching process with Alberta-based international medical graduates, and we’ll be looking at reconsidering this policy to combine both streams in the second iteration next year.”
Dr. Rinaldi said even if Alberta saw a surge of interest in family medicine, there’s a substantial number of doctors who are at retirement age.
“You’re probably going to end up with a net loss over the next five years,” she said.