DIDSBURY - A provincial group that helps attract doctors to the rural areas of Alberta is expanding.
The Alberta Rural Physician Action Plan (RPAP) is also going to be providing support services beyond physicians to other health professions including nurses and nurse practitioners, occupational and physical therapists (OTs and PTs), midwives and paramedics.
"Our role in the last couple of decades is to recruit and retain physicians working rurally, with the emphasis on retention," said Bernard Anderson, executive director for RPAP.
"Another big component of our work is helping resident physicians, those in their fourth to ninth year of post-graduate medical education, gaining rural education. The goal in that is to encourage them to work rurally when they're finished."
The RPAP is an independent non-governmental organization funded by Alberta Health.
Anderson told the Gazette that rural areas continue to struggle to have enough physicians.
"The data is pretty clear - the concentration of physicians is urban," he said. "The distribution per capita is certainly much higher urban.
"The more rural you get and more remote you get the lower the numbers. It's solidly clear: In terms of per capita the rural areas are underserved."
Anderson said that following a review by the Ministry of Health, RPAP is expanding its service beyond physicians.
"The Ministry of Health, our funder, has asked us in the next year to look at ways we can help other professions in need," he said.
"We know by their data that registered nurses and nurse practitioners, OTs and PTs, and health-care aides are key occupations that we're going to see what we can do to help either attract and retain, or to retain those that are working there with other types of support."
The RPAP helps rural physicians by doing such things as paying for replacement physicians when doctors go on vacation, he said.
There are many incentives offered to doctors to work rurally, he said.
"We're doing our research now," he said. "It'll take a bit of time, but we'd like to mirror some of the programs we have with our resident physicians to the other (health-care) students in their fourth or fifth years, or third if we can afford it, to give them that rural exposure."
RPAP is asking residents how they can bring greater health care to rural Alberta.
"We're reaching out to stakeholders and asking them what is it we can do for you," he said. "We want to hear from them before we jump the gun."
People can contact Bernard at [email protected] to give him any thoughts about how RPAP can help achieve solutions to health workforce issues in rural and remote communities.
"We're going to compile the information received into a business case as part of our renewed strategic plan for 2017 to 2020," he said.
"We're then going to present that to the Ministry of Health and try to get assured funding for three years."
