Doctor numbers don’t tell story, says Friends of Medicare
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on July 19, 2024.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com The Lethbridge chapter of the Friends of Medicare organization wants transparency about the numbers of new Alberta doctors that were heralded in a report by the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons.The quarterly report says the number of doctors in Lethbridge has grown by 27 in the last year from 279 to 306, which it says is an increase of 9.7 per cent.
The province, says the report, has gained 496 doctors with 11,756 now practising in Alberta which is the highest number ever in Alberta.
Bev Muendel-Atherstone, chair of the Friends of Medicare chapter in this city, says the numbers don’t tell what kind of doctors are now working here and if any are general practitioners accepting new patients.
Formed in 1979, Friends of Medicare is “a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of seniors’ organizations, labour organizations, cultural, faith and community groups, and physicians and patients” which it says shares concerns for the principles of Medicare: comprehensive coverage, universality, accessibility, portability and public administration on a non-profit basis.
“Just throwing out a number doesn’t really give us much information,” said Muendel-Atherstone, noting some coming to the province are specialists who are needed in their specific areas of expertise.
“Some of the doctors may be family doctors, they may be GPs but if join a clinic, they join an area where there are other doctors who are already fully subscribed” with between 1,000 and 1,500 patients, she said. Some have as many as 3,000.
“They’ve got too many patients so a new person joins a clinic, and of course they divide the patients amongst the new doctor and the other people. So that means the existing clinic physicians won’t have such a heavy caseload and people will be able to get into see them and the new person has a caseload already.
“But then they can’t take any new patients because they still are overloaded,” said Muendel-Atherstone.
And the Chinook Regional Hospital having fewer doctors in Emergency during summer is also a concern with this time of year being a time when people have more accidents because they’re outdoors, either doing recreation or home maintenance projects or other things in which harm can happen.
“Just at a time when we really need more people in the ER, more physicians, it’s lower so we don’t know where” the doctors went, she said.
“It would be nice if when these numbers are released, it’s not just the blanket number. South Zone is a big area so we want to know where are the people going. And who are they? Are they specialists? Are we getting another obstetrician/gynecologist, are we getting more surgeons, are we getting more anesthetists? Because right now, all of Alberta, in fact all of Canada, doesn’t have enough anesthetists,” she added.
“These people are absolutely essential for every surgery but because we don’t have enough, then surgeries are backed up.”
The local chair said people are needed for specific roles to fill all positions needed for surgeries.
While there may be new physicians coming here “just throwing out a number, that doesn’t tell us in Lethbridge who the people are that are coming in and how many physicians will actually be accepting new patients,” she said.
“That’s where the rubber meets the road is how many are actually going to accept new patients,” Muendel-Atherstone said. 3
-2
