By Troy Gillard and Adam Ophus

Shift vacancies

ER doctor shortage raises alarm bell in Rocky Mountain House

Jul 24, 2020 | 4:21 PM

Local doctors fear a lack of available physicians to cover ER shifts in Rocky Mountain House will be a regular occurrence going forward.

An internal AHS email leaked on Thursday revealed that the Rocky Mountain House Health Centre needed doctors for “urgent ER coverage” for a number of emergency department shifts between August 12 and 28.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro tweeted that the shift vacancies were the result of local physicians taking vacation time, not from giving up their privileges to work at the health centre as part of the ongoing contract dispute between doctors and the province.

Alberta Health Services confirmed Shandro’s claim in a statement on Friday.

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“The current vacancies at Rocky Mountain House are for vacation coverage, and are not due to physician privileging or job action of any kind,” AHS said. “Due to summer vacations, more shifts than usual need temporary coverage in the emergency department at Rocky Mountain House Health Centre. This is not unusual, and is something we experience at our healthcare facilities across the province every summer.”

AHS says its process worked as intended and coverage has been secured for the majority of the vacant shifts that were listed.

While acknowledging that some doctors are indeed taking time off next month, the Rocky Medical Clinic say shortages may be the “new norm” from now on.

“We tried to postpone the shortages for as long as possible (to ride out an anticipated COVID-19 patient surge), but now we have run out of steam,” the clinic said in a statement on Friday. “We are concerned that the Rocky ER will in the future require much more support from local physicians to keep the doors open.”

The Rocky Medical Clinic says they are actively trying to recruit new physicians but that it’s been a struggle to do so, noting the last family doctor they successfully recruited began working at the clinic in 2017.

The clinic says they’ve lost several doctors in 2020, including one to retirement and two who are leaving to start their own practice. Two more physicians were lost in the last 18 months.

Earlier this month, the clinic announced it no longer had enough staff available to cover its satellite clinic in Caroline.

The clinic says it will always be difficult to recruit physicians to rural communities, but fetting the government to negotiate a new contract with the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) would go a long way towards physicians feeling appreciated and secure in the province, especially during a pandemic.