The Bigelow Fowler Clinic at 1605 9 Avenue S. in Lethbridge (Google Maps)

By Justin Goulet

Local health clinics ‘stretched thin’ with lack of doctors

Jun 22, 2021 | 11:14 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The COVID-19 pandemic has left many people in search of a family physician.

Unfortunately, that’s proving to be difficult as many practices in southern Alberta have been losing their doctors. LNN talked with a spokesperson from the Bigelow Fowler Clinic, who wished to remain anonymous, about issues facing regional health practices.

Bigelow Fowler Clinic has three sites across Lethbridge, serving the west, east and south sides of the city. Right now, there are 23 family doctors across those locations, with the spokesperson noting that will soon be dropping to 19.

He said, “we can hold 25 full-time equivalent doctors between our three sites, so we’re going to be down quite significantly.”

As for why this is occurring, he stated that “for one thing, Alberta Health is limiting bringing in people from other jurisdictions, as in [from] outside of the country.”

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“We were able to recruit [from] South Africa, the UK, Ireland. We were able to recruit those physicians, but now, Alberta Health has put a stop to it.”

He also noted that many doctors are retiring for personal reasons, however, he said that leads to another issue facing practices in southern Alberta: recruitment.

He stated that, “eventually some docs want to hang it up. We’re losing one doctor because she’s originally from Ireland and they want to go back to the family farm back in Ireland, so it’s a normal attrition rate, but again, our big problem is recruitment.”

“If we can get people in to replace the doctors that are leaving, we’d be in a much better position, but we are not able to.”

He remarked that for students graduating from family medicine programs at the University of Alberta and University of Calgary are either staying in those cities for work once they’ve graduated or they’re moving outside of the province to areas in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

He said, “I guess some of them are feeling that Alberta’s not an attractive place to practice medicine.”

“My understanding of it is that the doctors in Alberta are being compensated the same as the doctors in B.C. and Saskatchewan – it’s the same rate, but the way that the government has gone about some of the [contract] negotiations I think has left a sour taste in some of the doctors’ mouths.”

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He said prior to the pandemic, under information from the Chinook Primary Care Network, there was roughly 30,000 people in Alberta’s South Health Zone without a family doctor. With retirements and a challenge in recruiting, active practitioners are being stretched thin.

He noted that, “the doctors that are still here, they’re trying to do their utmost to accommodate not only their own patients, but to try to help those that have been orphaned as well because there’s still ongoing needs, of course, but the doctors are limited.”

“They’re human beings and they can only work so much. It’s proving to be a very difficult situation.”

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