Despite several major initiatives, Westlock is still running short of family doctors. A recent survey by the Rural Physician Action Plan reveals that over the last five years only 10 doctors were hired in the federal riding of Westlock-St.
Despite several major initiatives, Westlock is still running short of family doctors.
A recent survey by the Rural Physician Action Plan reveals that over the last five years only 10 doctors were hired in the federal riding of Westlock-St. Paul - from 88 physicians to 98.
Currently there are 15 physicians working in Westlock, including 11 family doctors, three surgeons and one anesthesiologist. In the Westlock area alone there are several positions available for physicians and some have been vacant for years.
This means that with 12,467 people between the county and town that each family doctor is potentially caring for 1,133 patients.
Other medical professions are also in short supply as a recent report by Alberta Health Services states that patients could wait up to 20 minutes for an ambulance in some situations.
Recruiting and keeping doctors and other vital medical practitioners in rural municipalities like Westlock is an ongoing problem for Alberta Health Services, with only 2,006 of Alberta's 9,600 doctors working outside of Edmonton and Calgary.
'Overall, we probably have enough physicians," David Kay, Executive director of the rural physician action plan, pointed out, 'But they're not practicing where the vacancies are.
'In rural areas, the numbers are smaller, so missing one or two players can magnify the impact."
Kay adds that the Westlock branch of the Rural Physician Action Plan has not been active since 2012.
A major challenge is that rural doctors typically have a greater workload than their urban counterparts. Rural doctors tend to have to be generalist in their practice and have to know a lot about everything.
'In the big cities, we have family physicians and some of them are generalists, but typically they don't offer the full range of services that you will find a physician in Westlock providing," noted Kay. 'That means that you also need to have healthcare facilities and support staff that are also excited about being generalists."
Another key factor is that a majority of medical students tend to come from major cities and are far more comfortable in an urban setting.
'Being used to, or understanding what living in a smaller community is like can be a challenge," Kay said. 'That's why we work with rural school districts to try to get more high school students going to into university to think about going into medicine."
One tactic being used is to train doctors in rural areas via programs such as the Rural Alberta North Residency Program.
'One of the big factors of recruiting and attracting physicians and their families is helping them to integrate into the community and stay."
Town of Westlock CAO Dean Krause said the municipality has a $20,000 subsidy for new physicians moving to Westlock to offset their costs of settling in the area.
Last year the subsidy was applied for twice, while there have been no applications for the subsidy this year.
While the challenge to make sure everyone has access to a doctor is ongoing, Kay has seen definite progress over the years.
'Our program is one of the best in the county," said Kay. 'There was recently a rural health service review. One of the recommendations was to expand recruitment efforts so that we will also be involved in recruiting other health care workers above and beyond just physicians."
