“we need more physicians in smaller communities where it’s harder to recruit them and keep them . . . we know there are shortages,” said copping, adding the problem isn’t new and is a global one.
he couldn’t say how many more physicians the province requires or how many of those who came to alberta last year went to rural areas.
jason copping, minister of health, speaks at a media event discussing how the alberta government is addressing rural physician shortages at foothills medical centre in calgary on thursday, january 26, 2023.
azin ghaffari
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postmedia
just one physician was attracted under new government plan last year
a year ago, copping said the government was putting $6 million over three years into a new program administered by the long-standing rural health professions action plan that would see up to 20 new family physicians eligible for bonuses.
the program included $60,000 for undergraduate tuition fee reimbursement, as well as a remote community incentive ranging from $20,000 to $40,000.
on thursday, copping said that effort has proven a failure, with only one physician being attracted by it.
“we’ve made it much more wide open . . . we’ve added additional money to that program,” said copping.
“we are going to keep working until we get it right. the worst thing is to do nothing.”
the ucp government last november laid out a plan to beef up the number of rural physicians by training and credentialing more health-care workers.