Family physicians in high demand; many Albertans struggle to access care

Despite a recent increase in Alberta's doctor count, hundreds of thousands of Albertans still don't have their own primary care physician, and even those with one often struggle to get timely appointments.

A survey conducted in May by ThinkHQ asked Albertan adults about their use of health care services over the past year. Some 83 per cent reported having a family doctor, and most saw their primary care provider at least once. But 16 per cent of those with family doctors said it was challenging or very challenging to get an appointment when they needed one.

As a result, many Albertans are turning to alternatives. Some 78 per cent of people who visited walk-in clinics said they did so only because they couldn't get a timely appointment with their family doctor. Hospital emergency rooms and walk-in clinics drew similar numbers — 30 per cent and 28 per cent respectively — while 9 per cent saw a nurse practitioner.

Among those without a family doctor, almost half said they felt they didn't need one. About one-third said there were no family doctors accepting new patients where they lived.

Dr. Brian Wirzba, president of the Alberta Medical Association, acknowledged the bottleneck. "More than eight out of 10 Albertans saw a family doc in the last year, and when they did reported high-quality care — when they could access it," he told media Monday. "The real challenge we have is not the quality of care, but that access. When many describe their access as inconsistent or poor, you know that pushes them to other types of care."

The province has reportedly added between 600 and 1,000 new doctors recently, yet the primary-care access problem persists. Wirzba cautioned that some of those newly counted physicians may not actually be practising. "We don't have line of sight, given the way data is collected right now, and that's an area where we very much believe we need a lot more quality data," he said.