Province announces rural health incentives
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Government of Alberta has announced an initiative to increase incentives for medical practitioners and EMS personnel to operate in rural and remote areas of the province.
Adriana Lagrange, minister of health, said the Rural Health Action Plan is a three-year plan designed to guide government efforts in improving rural and remote health care, and close the gap in health care access between Albertans in urban centers and surrounding areas.
“Albertans living in rural and remote communities face unique challenges and health care challenges, which require tailored supports and approaches to ensure that these communities have the resources and infrastructure they need to provide quality care,” she said. “It should not matter where you live, all Albertans should have access to the health care services that they require and deserve.”
Focal points for the Rural Health Action Plan include community care, prevention and wellness, access, workforce, and creating innovative care models and solutions that serve the unique needs in rural and remote communities.
The province will provide up to $16 million over the next two years for a remote family medicine resident physician bursary pilot program to support family medicine resident physicians who want to practice in remote communities.
Up to $8 million will be available for each of the two years to qualified medical students. In return, the bursary recipients will commit to delivering comprehensive patient care in eligible communities for three years after completing their residency.
“In addition to the bursary program, we are also implementing two new grant programs including an $800,000 medical first responder grant program, and then a $600,000 emergency medical responder education program,” said Lagrange. “They will help to fund the creation of new medical first responder programs in communities that have limited access to healthcare services and helping in our ongoing efforts to retain our most qualified medical personnel.”
The intent of the first responder programs ultimately aims to create a positive impact and greater capacity for EMS, as well as to utilize ambulances more effectively.
“We are hearing on an ongoing basis that we are not training enough EMS responders and so that is why we are targeting this particular area, because we have identified a need in this area. The ultimate goal is to make sure that we have access all across the province,” she said. “Even though we have had incentive programs for quite a long time for family physicians and for other areas, we are not seeing the uptake and so we are looking at how do we grow our own programs.”