Concerns grow over dwindling family doctor availability in Alberta – CBC

Primary care access ‘probably the biggest issue facing every health system in the country,’ researcher says

Oct 02, 2023

Alberta doctors are again raising concerns about access to family physicians throughout the province.

According to data from Alberta’s Find a Doctor website — which is managed by Alberta’s Primary Care Networks (PCNs) — the number of family physicians accepting new patients via the website from 2020 to 2023 decreased by 79 per cent.

Across Alberta, there were 887 family doctors on the website who were accepting new patients in 2020. Now, as of September 2023, there are only 190.

In a Sept. 25 thread posted on X, formerly Twitter, the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) says that Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange joined the AMA Representative Forum meeting the previous weekend to discuss primary care, which the AMA referred to as a “crisis.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/family-doctors-declining-availability-website-1.6983392