File photo of Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf. (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Lethbridge-East MLA says doctor shortage being addressed

Dec 13, 2021 | 9:53 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Nathan Neudorf said hope may be on the horizon for those seeking a family physician in Lethbridge.

The MLA for Lethbridge-East spoke with LNN for a year-end interview, which will be published later this month. During the conversation, Neudorf mentioned that one of the most significant issues he’d heard about from constituents in a shortage of doctors taking on new patients in the region.

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He stated that this has been a predominant issue for a long time, “so [I’ve] been working very closely with two ministers of health on that and [am] very pleased that Alberta Health is now interviewing nine potential doctors for Lethbridge, so that’s a huge step forward.”

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“This challenge of losing doctors is actually six or seven years old and to be able to push towards this change – we’ve had at least one nurse practitioner hired for our area – and now if we can get even a few of those doctors, I think it would be reasonable to expect maybe three or four of those doctors to be hired for Lethbridge, would be a significant response to that growing concern.”

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Neudorf said many residents are worried about “getting a doctor’s appointment when they need it most.”

“People across the board hold their health care as one of the benefits of being a Canadian [and] one of the benefits of being an Albertan, so when that is put at risk, which over the six or seven years we have seen a decline in the number of doctors, people are rightly concerned with that and they’re looking for a response from government and I am very pleased that our government has responded to do that.”

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In late October, LNN asked readers if the doctor shortage in southern Alberta was impacting them. 56 per cent of the 251 respondents said they currently do not have a family doctor and are struggling to find one.

Neudorf added that a challenge for government is that they can only hire doctors and “can’t coerce doctors.”

“We can’t make them set up practice here. We can only invite them and offer them contracts and ability to do that and I’m very pleased that we have been able to move the dial on that and seen that response, that significant response for our government to answer that concern.”

He said there is “definitely a strong and positive hope” going into 2022, however, he noted the doctor shortage is not resolved but work is being done.

“I’ve been working very hard to increase the number of doctors being trained in Lethbridge and area, so that when they’re trained in this region, they might be more inclined to stay here as they train here.”

Neudorf noted that over the course of a doctor’s training, which could take somewhere from seven to 12 years, “they would establish roots wherever they take that training.”

He said, “if that training is in Lethbridge, they may have a home, they may have a significant partner, they may have a family, they may have pets, they may have a social network.”

“I think it follows to reason that if they train in Lethbridge, they’re more inclined to stay in Lethbridge as they put those roots down, so that’s another avenue that I’ve been working on behalf of Lethbridge. That’s not so much a short-term solution, that’s a much longer-term solution, but I’m pleased to be working on that for the long-term future of Lethbridge as well.”