Copping admits Alberta should have started doctor, medical aide training expansions sooner

Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping addresses addresses a news conference in Edmonton, on Tuesday December 6, 2022 (The Canadian Press/Jason Franson).

The Alberta government is saying late action is better than none when it comes to addressing shortages in the province's health-care system.

The ministers of advanced education and health spoke in greater detail on Monday about their plans to train more hospital workers and certify internationally trained health professionals.

With dollars set aside in Budget 2023, Alberta aims to add 3,400 spaces to its health-care post-secondary programs and boost its residency program by 34 per cent over the next three years.

"In an ideal world, we would have done it earlier, because we have a shortage now," Health Minister Jason Copping acknowledged during a news conference at the University of Alberta.

"But the best time to start when you haven't started already is now. So we're doing that, and we're investing for the long term to be able to make sure that we have the supply of doctors, particularly family rural physicians and other specialists where there's shortages."

RURAL SHORTAGES

According to Alberta Health, the province had nearly 11,200 physicians in 2020 — representing 252 doctors per 100,000 population. That is up from 2001, when there were around 167 per 100,000 people.

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Most of that growth was concentrated in urban centres. Canadian Institute of Health Information data indicates that as of 2020, only 752 physicians were practicing in rural areas of the province — accounting for about 6.7 per cent of total Alberta doctors and down by four per cent from 2019.

TRAINING SYSTEM DEMAND

A total of 1,800 spaces will be opened in nursing, health care aide, and paramedicine programs. And capacity in Alberta's bridging programs for internationally educated nurses will be boosted by 1,500 seats.

"We have more demand than we have capacity for, and of course, we have challenges with our health-care system," Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides told CTV News Edmonton in an interview.

"So if we're able to create more spaces in our nursing programs and other health-care programs, including training more doctors, we'll be able to help make sure that young Albertans are able to get into the programs they want right here at home," he added.

His ministry is spending $72 million in Budget 2023 to create the spots.  

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EXPANDING RURAL RESIDENCY OPPORTUNITIES

Alberta Health is also spending an extra $113 million in this budget on the Academic Medicine and Health Services Program, through which medical students complete their residency.

During the next three years, 120 seats – split evenly between the University of Calgary and University of Alberta – will be gradually opened for students working toward becoming doctors.

"This is going to initially be a 33-per cent increase and then heading actually towards a 50 per cent increase in the programs," Copping said. "These approaches we are announcing today will help expand our workforce faster."

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That program will enable the opening of health professional training centres in Lethbridge and Grande Prairie. Within three years, Alberta will be graduating 100 more physicians who are ready to practice each year, according to Copping.

"There is an interest to have training opportunities at home, in their respective communities," Nicolaides said. "That is something that I do hear quite a bit from Albertans from all corners of the province."

Alberta's 2023 health budget, released at the end of February, grew by about four per cent to a total of $24 billion.

Much of the funding is dedicated to increasing capacity in Alberta's health-care system, including reducing emergency wait times, improving ambulance response, and using private clinics to expand surgical capacity.

Currently, 15 to 20 family medicine residents train annually in rural regions.

"We feel that if we can increase the number of preceptors, set up these regional training hubs and have more people training in those locations is that the vast majority of them will stay rurally," said Todd Anderson, U of C's Cumming School of Medicine dean.

"If people stay in large cities, they are more likely to stay there. This initiative is really meant to fast track the number of rural training positions."

As it stands in the latest budget, all the operational funding for the training programs is slated for three years. Anderson hopes the province will create permanent funding to ensure the additional seats remain open in the future.

"We can only budget for the three-year period," Copping responded. "We can't make commitments longer than the three years, but I am hopeful that we will continue on this, and quite frankly, we need to." 

While funding to expand seats for in-demand medical programs is needed, the Opposition says the province's announcement does nothing to address residency positions that are already unfilled.

"The UCP's war on doctors drove many out of the province, increasing the workload and pressure for the doctors still here, and have made careers in practising medicine far less stable and predictable," said David Shepherd, NDP health critic. "Prospective medical students see this chaos and question their future in Alberta."