Nicolaides and Copping spoke at a news conference at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre on Thursday morning.
Copping said while he could not say how many are working in rural areas, Alberta gained 254 physicians in 2022 and said the province currently has a record number of doctors registered in Alberta.“ we still have a lot of work to do,” he acknowledged. “We need them in smaller communities where it’s harder to recruit them and harder to keep them.”Ongoing impacts resulting from a shortage of physicians in rural Alberta continue to be reported.
“The pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the health workforce — across Canada,” he said. “And that very much includes physicians.” Copping said his government is employing a variety of strategies to ensure more doctors are working in rural Alberta, including “leveraging newcomers who want to come to the province,” something he said is exemplified by initiatives in Lethbridge as part of ongoing efforts to increase the number of physicians there.
Training hub development part of long-term strategy to help rural doctor shortage: Alberta health minister
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