Small town in rural Alberta scrambling after learning its only medical clinic is set to close

Catherine Garrett · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 03, 2025 8:00 AM EST | Last Updated: March 3

A bluish Alberta municipality is losing its lone household doc session and officials are trying to find solutions earlier the doors adjacent for bully astatine the extremity of May.

The Wembley Medical Clinic was opened successful 2021. It's the lone household doc session successful the municipality of Wembley, Alta., about 23 kilometres west of Grande Prairie.

A announcement of signifier closure was posted connected societal media Feb. 12, explaining that 1 of the clinic's doctors was moving and the different was incapable to instrumentality implicit ownership oregon signifier astatine the session owed to a College of Physicians and Surgeons signifier licence restriction.

According to Wembley municipality council, the assemblage of astir 1,400 was without household doc sum for astir 3 decades earlier the session opened and present residents face losing it again. 

"The past two or three weeks, I consciousness similar we were enactment into a tailspin and a spot of a panic mode. We are benignant of reeling from it," said Coun. Anna Underwood. 

"Having the doc successful our tiny assemblage has been huge, and she has been a fabulous doc for [us]. I can't accidental thing antagonistic astir her. She was lovely. Her household was lovely. They were engaged successful our community."

Underwood said municipality officials were told the program was to person the 2nd doc instrumentality implicit the practice, but they were precocious informed of the restriction, which sent them backmost to the drafting board. 

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta confirms the doctor is presently successful the practice readiness appraisal process. It is an alternate way to autarkic signifier successful Alberta for physicians without implicit Canadian credentials.

Wembley is successful the process of trying to recruit another doctor, but it is also considering trying to bring in a caregiver practitioner to assistance support the session successful operation, Underwood said.

For now, patients are advised to spell a walk-in clinic, and research health-care options successful surrounding communities. 

"It's decidedly imaginable to thrust to Grande Prairie to spell and spot a doctor. Having a doc successful our ain assemblage though, it gives you much of a consciousness of community," said Underwood.

She noted the assemblage has a ample elder population, and many radical who can't easy marque a travel to different area.

"We're going to effort immoderate we tin bash to get that filled arsenic rapidly arsenic possible."

Long-standing issue

The contented of recruitment and retention of health-care professionals is a long-standing one, with respective communities successful northwest Alberta trying antithetic tactics. Grande Prairie has precocious launched an inducement programme to assistance with attracting much doctors.

"We often perceive from physicians who are staying longer than they program to," said Chris Galloway, enforcement manager of Friends of Medicare.

"They hold status arsenic they look for idiosyncratic to instrumentality implicit their practice. They effort to find folks to bargain it retired oregon to travel successful and transition, and they aren't capable to. Eventually they often person to marque the hard determination to conscionable unopen down."

It's hard for the physicians, Galloway said.

"They cognize that they're leaving patients with obscurity other to go. They cognize that they're leaving them having to spell to the exigency room, oregon effort to entree attraction successful different ways. But astatine immoderate constituent they tin lone support it going for truthful long."

Wembley municipality assembly is collaborating with Alberta Health Services and the state to research ways to unafraid wellness attraction for the community. 

In a connection to CBC News, Alberta Health said addressing health-care staffing shortages is simply a precedence for the government, particularly successful agrarian areas, but it acknowledged much needs to beryllium done.

The ministry said it precocious announced the instauration of Primary Care Alberta, an bureau to enactment integrated teams of household physicians, caregiver practitioners and pharmacists.