The province’s health minister says an increase in the number of doctors in Alberta is a sign that their recruiting efforts are working.
Adriana LaGrange says the Health Workforce Strategy has been focused on addressing physician shortages.
“We have been working with the college of physicians and surgeons to streamline their processes. Up until March of this year, only Alberta Health Services could recruit family physicians into the province and now we have opened that up so that clinics and municipalities and areas of need can also go out and recruit family physicians into the province.”
Recent number from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, the number of physicians in Alberta has increased by almost 500 from the second quarter of 2023.
One of the big areas the province is focusing on is better medical access in rural areas.
LaGrange says this includes their new funding program for nurse practitioners.
“For the first time ever in all of Canada, nurse practitioners will be able to practice autonomously. They’ll be able to have their own patients and they’ll be funded as such. We know that nurse practitioners are very much able to go across the whole province.”
LaGrange says a lot of nurse practitioners who have applied for that program have been looking at practicing in rural and remote areas and in indigenous communities.
You can listen to the full interview with the minister below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
