A Red Deer family physician says a new survey may not fully encapsulate the issues facing family medicine and rural generalists in the province.
According to the survey, 61 per cent of family doctors and rural generalists are considering leaving Alberta.
On Tuesday, the Alberta Medical Association released recent survey results and urged the province to provide immediate funding and develop an updated funding model to save financially strapped family and rural physicians.
Dr. Peter Bouch, with Red Deer Primary Care Network, said doctors are under extreme pressure and those who are unhappy are more likely to respond to a survey.
“I think it’s definitely a good representation of what the physicians are thinking,” Bouch said.
The survey showed 91 per cent of the doctors are concerned their practices won’t survive if things don’t change. Without immediate support, one in five families say their practices will not make it for more than six months; eight percent will not make it to three months, and 21 percent think they’ll be able to hang in for the next year.
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Bouch said there’s just not enough family doctors and so many people looking for one.
“I probably get asked five or six times a day if I would take on somebody. I just can’t because I’m full.”
He said those without a family doctor have to rely on walk-in clinics which is not ideal because those doctors don’t have patients’ medical histories.
“Patients out there are the ones that are suffering because they don’t have family physicians.”
He said rural doctors are feeling the most pressure. They have to work in emergency departments and try and juggle a practice.
“There are doctors coming to Red Deer, but they’re going to be working (in hospital) and maybe do some part-time work in clinics. So that doesn’t really ease the burden among family physicians.”
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In October, the province released reports from advisory panels that were formed last year as part of Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) initiative. Better compensation for physicians so more Albertans can find family doctors was among the recommendations.
In December the province also announced $200 million in federal funding would go to stabilizing primary care over two years.
But Bouch said nothing has happened since those announcements.
“The government needs to move. They need to do something soon.”
And any new funding model can’t just be rolled out by the government without input from doctors, otherwise, doctors will be angry, he added.
“It has to be a reciprocal agreement where both parties agree.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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