Lethbridge residents now travelling to find family doctors as physician shortage worsens
Many Lethbridge and area residents hoping to find a new family doctor are now being forced to travel to Calgary, or some of the smaller rural communities in southern Alberta.
The provincial government maintains there are lots of physicians in Alberta, but that’s not the case in Lethbridge, where many physicians have either retired or moved to take positions elsewhere.
Some patients are blaming what they see as the UCP government’s attack on health care professionals for the shortage.
Linda Richards lives south of Lethbridge, but considers the city to be her “business centre,” where she shops, purchases groceries, and was attended to by her family doctor.
“To have him leaving was a surprise,” said Richards. “What was startling was there were no replacements.”
Richards discovered the only physicians in Lethbridge taking new patients were doctors at the Prairie Treatment Opioid Dependency Clinic.
When she called the Chinook Primary Care Network seeking help, she was told her other options were to try the Fort Macleod Medical Clinic or the Blood Tribe Clinic in Stand Off.
“The idea of driving to see someone who is a distance away doesn’t seem like a very appealing choice,” said Richards. “But it’s the only choice right now."
“It’s just beyond me that we are in a situation where we can’t attract docs in a city like Lethbridge,” said Robert Luco, who has a short, three-minute drive to Lethbridge from his farm near the airport.
Robert Luco is concerned about the loss of his family doctor in Lethbridge.
Robert Luco is concerned about the loss of his family doctor in Lethbridge.
Luco was notified in August that his family doctor was also leaving. In a letter to patients, the physician explained it was for both personal reasons and because of the political climate in Alberta.
“The last 18 months have been bitter for everyone. Our current Provincial Government has not made things easy for the medical profession in Alberta," the letter stated.
"I fear this is going to make recruiting new doctors to our clinic extremely difficult.”
Concerned about what was happening, both Luco and Richards contacted Cardston-Taber-Warner MLA Grant Hunter (UCP).
“He just said there are all kinds of doctors in Alberta,” said Richards, who added Hunter also promised to look into the situation and get back to her.
In an interview with CTV News Hunter acknowledged that his office had received “a handful” of phone calls on the issue, mostly from the western part of his riding, which borders the city.
“I heard just recently that in Lethbridge and some of the Southern Zone there are some health care professions that are understaffed and we need to rectify the situation,” said Hunter.
He added the health minister is aware of the issue and trying to work through it.
Hunter maintains province-wide there is no shortage of family physicians, and that Alberta has more doctors than it did prior to the pandemic.
“In terms of what’s happening in Lethbridge, there might be a micro-situation there that we have to address," he said.
Medical clinic managers in Lethbridge suggest physician numbers do not tell the whole story. They point out a number of family doctors who don’t work full-time.
Alberta Health Services has also taken over control of assessments of international physicians, which in essence, has resulted in a freeze on the recruitment of physicians from outside the country.
The fact that the province has not been able to reach a new master agreement with physicians hasn’t helped.
Richards said until recently she never imagined there would be a shortage of doctors in Canada.
“To come to a province that has been as wealthy and well prepared as Alberta has been in so many ways, it just feels we’ve fallen off of a cliff in being able to keep physicians.”
Luco says the loss of his physician will also affect his son, a good friend, and two other people that he knows personally, “and all of us have health issues that need to be dealt with.”
He is concerned the growing shortage will result in more visits to the emergency room, which would be more costly and is not ideal during the pandemic.
“I don’t think this is an uncommon thing at this point, but it’s certainly unacceptable,” said Luco.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.