SPC hears update on physician recruitment action plan
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 26, 2024.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
The Governance Standing Policy Committee of city council on Thursday was provided with an update on the City’s physician shortage action plan.
It was asked to recommend council direct administration to report back on the activities and outcomes of the plan to the SPC in the first quarter of 2025.
The SPC consists of councillors Belinda Crowson, Jenn Schmidt-Rempel, Rajko Dodic and John Middleton-Hope.
The meeting which started at 12:30 p.m. in council chambers went into closed section minutes later to discuss confidential matters regarding the action plan update and the Advocacy 101 framework.
The report to the SPC says that while more family physicians are coming to meet the needs of the population in southwestern Alberta, a number of specialty areas in the city require advocacy and attention so they don’t become a crisis. Those include but aren’t limited to anesthesiology, cardiology, child and adolescent mental health, diagnostic imaging, emergency medicine, geriatrics, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and pain management, says the report.
The new action plan is going to focus on marketing and advocacy with strategies on those starting this month with completion and evaluation by the first quarter of next year.
The report says advocacy includes meetings with local MLAs, the Health Minister and association Minister of Mental Health and Addictions where appropriate.
It notes that physician recruitment is the jurisdiction of the Alberta government.
Director of Community Services Carly Kleisinger told the SPC that this “has been a topic for city council for many years. I would say it predates the last election as many members of the community were coming to council expressing their concerns” about a lack of a family physician.
Council has directed administration in the past for an action plan that they did work through for a number of years, with the last direction on May 14 being to update that plan and better reflect the work that’s been completed to date and also look at the current situation after physician recruitment has been in place for a couple of years through the province and AHS and look at a refreshed marketing campaign, she said.
Council has already allocated $15,000 for that campaign so work is commencing immediately, Kleisinger added. That funding came from council contingencies in May as part of an official business motion sponsored by mayor Blaine Hyggen and councillor Jenn Schmidt-Rempel.
An advocacy letter was also sent to the health minister on June 2 and administration will return early next year with the plan results, she added.
One of the big wins for the city, Kleisinger said, is the southern Alberta medical program and the addition of family physicians which administration knows has been worked on for a number of years and there have been successes.
On July 11, AHS announced there had been a temporary reduction in staff for July and August in the hospital emergency department “which is why we just reflect that there are some changes and some things that make the work of council even more important when we’re talking about specialty positions, she said.
The City has a dedicated website – lethbridge.ca/doctor which can provide interested physicians and their families with information about Lethbridge that may be key to them. It has a form that can connect physicians with information on a range of things including education, childcare, and real estate along with opportunities in sports and recreation.
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Right. $15000 for physician recruitment, $43million for bicycle lanes. Guess we know where their priorities lie.
Just read a study that ranks Alberta 8th in Canada for health care spending. That’s an absolute disgrace based on the wealth this province has. George