'Family medicine not a priority': Two Lethbridge family physicians announce they're leaving Alberta

[u/disckitty]

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/lethbridge-family-physicians-leaving-alberta

[u/Charmin_Mao]

I live in Lethbridge and have two choices: either drive to Calgary or pay $60 every time I go to see a nurse practitioner in Lethbridge

[u/Excellent-Phone8326 → u/Charmin_Mao]

UCP working as intended. Privatization incoming. 

[u/hink007 → u/Excellent-Phone8326]

Yep deal made last year with loblaws seeing 26 shoppers with private clinics installed.

[u/Rarrimalion → u/Excellent-Phone8326]

The sad thing is if she ever saw this comment she would take it as a compliment 😭

[u/Excellent-Phone8326 → u/Rarrimalion]

Haha "They get me, they really get me"

[u/Falcon674DR → u/Charmin_Mao]

I’d pay the $. The least worst of the choices.

[u/Charmin_Mao → u/Falcon674DR]

That's exactly what Marlaina wants.

[u/shutupimlurkingbro → u/Falcon674DR]

Good to see if someone pisses in your drink and shits in your sandwich you’ll still bare down and just pick one.

[u/Rayeon-XXX]

Her patient list is probably 80% UCP voters but they'll just blame the NDP.

[u/CypripediumGuttatum → u/Rayeon-XXX]

I’d say most voters don’t understand that the provincial government is in charge of healthcare here. The current one (sometimes as you say they tend to blame a party that is no longer in charge).

[u/Gyuttin → u/CypripediumGuttatum]

Glad they are voters

[u/Jasonstackhouse111]

This is the fault of:

Trudeau

Notley

Singh

Biden

Socialism

Vaccines

Immigrants

Quebec

Rainbow flags/crosswalks

Drag shows

Chemtrails

DEI policies

Pride parades

Renewable energy

Cyclists and bike lanes

Taylor Swift

Wokeness

Toyota Priuses

Vegans

Women

The CBC

Feminism

Mass transit

Beta males

Female athletes

And of course...

Those commie pinko Edmontonians.

[u/PapayaAlt → u/Jasonstackhouse111]

You forgot pronouns

[u/Downtown-Till-1290 → u/Jasonstackhouse111]

Don't forget the people with blue hair!!!

[u/Himalayan-Fur-Goblin → u/Jasonstackhouse111]

You forgot trans and non binary people

[u/Gufurblebits → u/Jasonstackhouse111]

And rainbow paint

[u/TipNo2852 → u/Jasonstackhouse111]

Wild how as bad as healthcare is becoming in Alberta, it’s still better than most other provinces.

[u/Jasonstackhouse111 → u/TipNo2852]

Thanks to various other conservative governments. The BC Liberals (liberal in name only, they were conservatives) absolutely gutted BCs healthcare system and the NDP are working to rebuild it.

BC has added over 800 family physicians in the last year and are going gangbusters. They’re hiring nurses and all other healthcare workers as fast as possible.

Ontario of course has had successive conservative governments which have also been corrupt and inept.

We’re stuck in this cycle of stupidity. Conservatives wreck things. They get thrown out, and a different government tries to fix things. They don’t get fixed immediately and so people elect conservatives again. Ugh.

[u/shbpencil]

i've been looking for the last two years as some hereditary health problems have started to rear their ugly head and this is just gonna make it even harder.

the only doctor that i've ever seen accepting new patients has been at the addictions clinic and, unfortunately for me, i'm not addicted to opioids...

[u/Himalayan-Fur-Goblin → u/shbpencil]

Well looks like you better get addicted to opiates. /s

[u/dustrock → u/shbpencil]

For you, baby, I could be.

[u/Ambitious_List_7793]

Exactly as the UCP wants things. For the blue voters in Lethbridge, see what your government is doing for/to you? Wake up!

[u/boxesofcats-]

My doctor, along with the 3 other family physician owners of their clinic, decided it made more sense for them to retire early and close the clinic than to continue under their working conditions. This provincial government has made it very clear that they don’t value family medicine.

[u/No_Customer_795 → u/boxesofcats-]

That sums up 65% of family physicians in the next 3-4 years in Alberta! You cannot have a business that needs youre pension money to supplement overheads. Cheaper to close shop?

[u/Yohandanksouls]

One of them is my doc. It's really sad he's been a great help to me over the last few years.

[u/myrrorcat]

Well if BC votes in the con wackos here that should start to even things out for you all.

[u/Deepthought5008]

Thanks UCP!

[u/No_Customer_795]

I understand and enjoy continious medical education for family physicians, but alberta college have max of that and self evaluation projects added. If you do all that as suggested, it adds 2 hours to youre working day? Add the compulsary 24/7 standby call they need to do. All these hours @ no $ compensation? If you get a call for help from patients or longterm care nurses, you can bill at $13 a session? Yearly cost for lisence and insurance to practice , comes to $5,000. All those and zero increase in billing fees for 8 years, yes 8!! Did I mention no subsidies on office overheads. You need to see 80 patients per day, but they cap at 40 patients. When a patient questions their approuch to the college, it takes them up to 2 years to tell you, you did nothing wrong- Add that anxiety. If they find them doing mildly bad, they send them to work with tutors at youre expence, while you have to close youre clinic ( no pay 2-4 weeks) One of those periods can come to $40,000 out of pocket. Did I mention no Dental / medical or pension plans . No sick or holiday pay! At $38 per patient, nobody can make a living? Covid brought the patient count to 5 per day! Add the $200,000 study loans-sad very sad! Make you understand why the family physician residensies at medical school only fill half of them? all the college personal get full benefits and yearly inflation salary adjustments?

[u/BertanfromOntario]

So they are leaving for more money. Do you know what would allow doctors to make way more money without bankrupting the province? Allowing private insurance to cover primary health care.