Alberta healthcare professionals are relocating from the province rapidly

More Alberta healthcare professionals are exiting the province and relocating compared to pre-pandemic times.

This is despite the federal government committing another $2 billion to help provincial health systems work through their surgical and diagnostic backlogs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as announced by Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

President of the Alberta Medical Association Dr. Michelle Warren welcomes the new federal funding. However, she says it only fixes part of the problem.

Today we launch the Care Deficit Assessment Series on patient care issues across the profession. You will see the great breadth and depth of the care deficit’s impact and the backlog that will take years to resolve – and only with the efforts of all parties working together. 2/5

— Alberta Medical Association (AMA) (@Albertadoctors) March 24, 2022

“Our problem isn’t beds, our problem is staffing … If you don’t have any anesthetics, they put you to sleep with your surgery and how is that going to happen? That human resource shortage is really going to be our biggest challenge that we can’t fix with a dollar figure,” Warren said.

More physicians left Alberta last year compared to pre-pandemic years. A lot of doctors and other health professionals are moving, quitting, or retiring.

More physicians left Alberta last year compared to pre-pandemic years, according to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA). A lot of doctors and other health professionals are moving, quitting, or retiring.

CPSA says a total of 568 people left, while 140 moved out of the province in 2021, compared to 87 who left the year before.

In 2021, 176 workers retired. That’s nearly triple the 54 doctors who called it a career in 2019.

Read More:

• Alberta pledges $300M for new critical care beds over next three years

• Alberta’s Budget 2022 puts more money into health amid COVID recovery

• NDP claim Kenney ‘lied about number of cancelled surgeries’, UCP says they’re ‘playing politics’

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However, Warren says the reality is they need health professionals for surgeries to go ahead.

“The care deficit that we’re in is actually large and will continue to grow. It’s not just surgery. So any additional funding that the federal government can send to the provincial government to help address the surgical backlog is great. The reality though is that’s not our biggest problem,” she said.

Warren says any additional funding will help but she says it does not address the bigger issue of staffing.

“The human resource shortage is really going to be our biggest challenge that we can’t fix with a dollar figure. So I think it’s great the federal government is stepping in. Will it solve the problem – no. but it’s definitely not going to hurt,” says Warren.