Doctor shortages are still occurring in the region and that’s causing concerns from one local politician.
Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen says he doesn’t believe that there are enough doctors graduating from medical schools in the Province.
“Local students are travelling around the world to become doctors to be able to get into medical schools and bypassing Alberta because they can’t get accepted into the universities in Alberta. Then the process for them to come back, it takes a couple of years for them to get certified to come back.”
Loewen believes there are some steps the province can take to graduate more doctors and get them to rural areas.
“When we have doctors that want to come to Alberta, particularly our own homegrown folks that have traveled around the world to be able to get into medical school, we need to be able to get them back and into rural Alberta as fast as possible. Not this convoluted time taking process to get them certified to come back and practice.”
Several communities have seen doctor shortages over the last few months including Spirit River, Fairview and McLennan.
We also talked to Loewen about what the province should do for addressing the opioid situation and the current vote the UCP is having on the leadership of Premier Jason Kenney.
You can hear that full discussion below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
