Alberta has the most registered doctors in its history, but is it enough?

The Alberta government is celebrating after recording its highest number of registered doctors in provincial history. Mark Villani has more.

Alberta has the most registered physicians in the province’s history, but critics say it’s still not enough to keep up with population growth.

In a post shared to social media on Thursday, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange noted that Alberta had a total of 12,212 registered physicians in 2024, according to data from the College of Physicians and surgeons of Alberta (CPSA).

“In 2024 alone, we added 474 physicians, making it one of the highest years for physician growth in over a decade,” LaGrange said.

While the numbers are trending upward, they still don’t meet the province’s overall population growth over the past five years.

In 2019, there were 253 doctors for every 100,000 Albertans.

Fast forward to 2024, and those numbers are down to 247 doctors for every 100,000 Albertans.

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“We’ve seen this from the minister a few times now, where they put out one fact to try and say things are going well, but these numbers don’t even tell us how many registered physicians are actually working right now,” said Chris Galloway, executive director for Friends of Medicare.

“It doesn’t tell us a plan to get the 600,000 Albertans who don’t have access to a family doctor access, and we’re even seeing new guidelines now from the College of Physicians to tell doctors what to do when they’re overburdened by their caseload and feeling burnt out.”

Galloway says that not having access to primary care is just putting more pressure on other parts of the health-care system in the form of emergency room wait times, and delays for surgeries or testing.

“What we really need is a workforce plan for health care, something we’ve talked about for a long time, and that includes doctors, and that includes primary care. We’re not seeing that kind of provincial workforce plan from our government.”

It’s concerning news for people who are in the process of finding a family doctor.

Calgarian Carmen Blahey she and her mother have been without a family doctor for the past two years after their original doctor retired.

“I’m kind of working with I have, so I’m really hoping with some good research or contacts something will come out, but I’ve been finding it especially difficult,” Blahey said.

“It would be great especially for my mom, who is in her more mature years when more health issues are coming up, and she could use the support right now.”

CTV News has reached out to Minister LaGrange’s office for reaction to the Friends of Medicare’s push for more physicians in the province.

In a statement to CTV News, the health minister’s office said addressing physician shortages and frontline health care staffing challenges remains a top priority for Alberta’s government.

“We recognize there is still more work to be done,” said the statement.

“That’s why we are continuing to take significant action to refocus the health care system, specifically with the creation of Primary Care Alberta – a dedicated provincial health agency that will be responsible for supporting integrated teams of family physicians, nurse practitioners and pharmacists to provide patients with the best care possible.

“This will create a modern, more responsive and unified health care system that prioritizes patients, empowers front-line health care professionals and helps reduce pressures on the entire health system.

Registered physician numbers up in Calgary

The latest statistics from the CPSA show the number of registered physicians in the Calgary Zone is improving, with 330 physicians added in 2024.

In the Calgary area, there were about 333 doctors per 100,000 people in 2024, compared to 323 doctors per 100,000 people back in 2019.

Still, the Alberta Medical Association says just because physicians are registered, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are practicing.

“What we do see with these numbers is there has been an increase in the number of family medicine specialists who have registered, but not really a substantial increase in the non-family medicine specialists,” said Dr. Shelley Duggan, AMA president. “So that would be surgeons general, internists, that type of thing, which is a bit concerning because we do have an acute care crisis as well.”

Duggan pointed to a new deal for primary care physicians in the province as one that is more financially lucrative for doctors to work in a hospital versus a clinic – and that some are trimming back their family doctor clients – for that reason.

She also says the provincial government’s lack of effort to recruit new physicians in an effort to save costs is now “rearing its head.”

“It’s a bit late now, because of how long it takes to train physicians, so we do need to increase enrollment in medical schools, we do need to find ways to bring those from other countries who wish to come here into the system,” said Duggan.

“But the other thing that you’ll probably hear the AMA talk more and more about over the next few years, is team-based care to help manage patients. So they could probably use a pharmacist, a nurse, a nurse practitioner, and all of those individuals together to help work to their full scope, so that a physician in general can have a significant more number of patients on their panel.”