Achi news desk-
ETHBRIDGE, ALTA. –
The Alberta Government has come up with a new plan to attract doctors to rural communities.
Schools from across the province, including the University of Lethbridge, will partner to get more doctors to train in rural areas.
Almost $225 million is being invested to train doctors in rural areas as part of the province’s latest budget.
“This will make a lasting difference for generations to come. We couldn’t be prouder of Lethbridge, we couldn’t be prouder of Alberta for coming together, working together and committing to making Alberta a better place to live, work, raise a family,” said Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf .
The new training centers will be located at U of L and Northwestern Polytechnic in Grande Prairie.
The U of L will partner with the University of Calgary for its program while Northwestern partners with the University of Alberta.
“Both training centers will provide academic training with practical healthcare education. Students in the doctor of medicine program at the new training centers will learn alongside other health professionals,” said Rajan Sawhney, higher education minister.
The training centers will also be able to lighten the burden on other doctors in the community.
Once fully operational, each GP in the teaching clinics can provide primary care for around 1,200 patients a year.
“Creating a rural medical education program training center at the University of Lethbridge in partnership with the University of Calgary will make a long-term difference in increasing the number of physicians practicing outside Alberta’s major urban centers,” said U of L president Digvir. Jayas,
Rural communities have been hit hard by the shortage of doctors.
Currently, there are no family doctors accepting patients in Lethbridge.
“The UCP is setting up much-needed rural education expansion to fail if they don’t also strongly support primary care in rural Alberta,” said Luanne Metz, Alberta NDP Health Critic, in a news release.
“The UCP government needs to fix the bigger issues that are driving doctors away and keeping them from locating here.”
The province hopes the rural training program will provide a steady flow of doctors for rural and remote communities.
“We know that Alberta is currently dealing with a shortage of doctors and that the need is felt more acutely in rural areas. Currently only 6.6 per cent of Alberta doctors work in rural areas,” Sawhney said.
The U of L hopes to be able to accept its first group of training doctors in the 2025-26 school year.
