Health Minister Adriana LaGrange says significant progress is being made to develop the new primary care compensation model.
In April, the province and the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) announced they approved the new funding model to help retain and attract family doctors to address the crisis in family medicine.
Pay rates for family physicians and rural generalists still needed to be determined. Final recommendations were expected to go to LaGrange by the fall.
On Wednesday, AMA president Dr. Paul Parks told the Advocate that doctors were still waiting for that funding to help save primary care clinics.
“We knew from the start that developing a new physician compensation model would be a complex and time-consuming process. This work was never about quick fixes, and there is still a little more work to be done," LaGrange said in a statement.
She said that since December 2023, new funding of $257 million over the next two years was announced to stabilize family physician practices and improve access to family doctors, with $157 million committed this year alone.
“Alberta doctors are already among the highest paid in the country, and under this new model, we’ll be able to sustain that high level of compensation while improving access to primary care for patients."
She thanked Dr. Parks for his continued advocacy and for working so diligently with her and their teams to get so close to finalization.
"I’m pleased to report that we are making significant progress on a model that will be financially sustainable and support both our physicians and Albertans well into the future.”
In February, the AMA reported that British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba were all paying their family doctors $100,000 to $150,000 more a year, and a survey showed 61 per cent of Alberta family doctors were considering leaving the province’s health care system.
