The group representing doctors in Alberta is launching a new ad campaign, asking Albertans to talk to their MLAs about health care, saying the province isn’t listening to physicians.
“I’m one of those people who don’t have a family physician. So, I fit into the 800 or thousand or so Albertans that don’t have a family physician,” said Dr. Shelley Duggan, the president of the Alberta Medical Association (AMA).
This comes as the group is putting up these billboards and posters, saying the Province isn’t listening to them when it comes to family doctor retention and compensation, as well as changes to the Province’s acute care system to bring down wait times in emergency rooms.
“We just don’t have the workforce to look after all of these patients that are coming towards us, and these patients that are often using the emergency department as their first entry point into the system,” explained Dr. Duggan.
The doctor’s campaign starts as Alberta’s health minister making a stop in Hinton — three hours west of Edmonton — to announce a $16 million pilot program designed to attract medical residents from the University of Alberta and Calgary to practice family medicine in rural parts of the province.
“There is an urgent need for customized supports in rural and remote communities across Alberta. This action plan will serve as a roadmap to build and maintain access to high-quality health care in these areas of the province,” said Minister LaGrange.
The province will give medical graduates money of up to $200,000 to practice for three years in a rural area.
Minister LaGrange told media, work is ongoing with family doctor compensation and emergency rooms across the province.
“We continue to recruit for our emergency rooms, Alberta Health Services continues that recruitment. We also have an ARP which is an alternative compensation model for family hospitalists that we are in the process of finalizing. Along with the primary care physician compensation model, we are very close to finalizing that as well.”
It’s not enough say the leader of the AMA, Dr. Duggan says the money offered by the province doesn’t keep up with inflation and the province’s massive population boom over the last two years.
“We’ve shown some data if they actually invested for the population growth and aging and inflation, we would need an extra 731 million — to care for that. So they’re underfunding the system as it is.”