More physicians needed in Lethbridge despite recent recruitment, health-care advocate says

A physician measures blood pressure in this undated file image. (CTV News)

LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. — Lethbridge has added nearly 30 doctors in the past year, but according to advocates, more are needed to address the backlog of patients.

Recent quarterly data from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta shows Lethbridge has 27 more doctors now than it did this time last year, bringing the total number of physicians in the city up to 306.

“What the clinics do is that they break it down. Give the new hire half of what someone else has. So if one person has two or three thousand people they break that down. They've still got too many people,” said Bev Muendel-Atherstone, president of the Lethbridge chapter of Friends of Medicare.

According to the Primary Care Network’s Find a Doctor Tool, there are no doctors currently accepting patients in Lethbridge.

That still leaves tens of thousands of Lethbridge residents without access to a family doctor.

“We don't know what the backlog is. All those figures have not been made public. So it would be good if we had a better breakdown of what is happening in our own city,” Muendel-Atherstone said.

Across the province, there are almost 500 more physicians compared to last year, including 31 in the south zone.

Health Minister Adriana LaGrange said the province is committed to recruiting more doctors to Alberta in a statement Thursday.

"This increase is incredibly positive, but we’re not stopping our efforts to attract more physicians,” LaGrange said in the statement.

“As part of the health workforce strategy, we are working to increase the number of spaces in our province’s medical schools, residency positions and training opportunities for international medical graduates.”

While more physicians coming to Lethbridge is good news there are still staffing issues in the city.

It was recently announced that the emergency department at Chinook Regional Hospital will experience reduced staffing in July and August due to physician shortages.

“We have to keep hiring more physicians. We're having problems right now with the ER in Lethbridge. We just heard that all during the summer there will be fewer physicians on duty so the ER is going to be even more blocked up than it has been,” said Muendel-Atherstone.

The City of Lethbridge is pleased to see more physicians are coming to Lethbridge. The city is working as well to help doctor recruitment.

“City council has been working hard to support physician recruitment while advocating with our partners to get more physicians working in our community,” the city said in a statement.

“Council’s recent decision to provide an additional $15,000 has made it possible to continue marketing and advertising efforts to recruit physicians to Lethbridge."