Alberta Health Services (AHS) is currently searching for two new doctors to practice general and family medicine in Athabasca.
Deborah Whetstone, AHS north zone privileging manager, is co-ordinating the recruitment effort. She said she was present at the town’s physician retention and recruitment committee meeting May 9, where the need for additional doctors in town was discussed.
One of Athabasca’s two female physicians, Dr. Renate Teise-Smith, is leaving Athabasca June 22, and will need to be replaced. The other female physician, Dr. Colette Mackenzie, is not currently accepting new patients.
In a later interview, Whetstone said the AHS has posted two jobs to its job board, doctorjobsalberta.com. According to the website, the first job listing was posted Oct. 13 and the second was posted May 15.
Whetstone said AHS’s priority is finding a doctor with both rural experience and the qualifications to work in the local hospital’s emergency department.
“We look for advanced trauma life support, because sometimes those physicians are working alone in an emergency,” she said. “We have to ensure that they’re capable and able to handle any situation even if they are working alone.”
Whetstone said that AHS is responsible for co-ordinating the recruitment of doctors and introducing them to the communities where they can potentially practice. Local physician recruitment committees are then responsible for marketing their towns.
“Our community will still be required to showcase our community, and the medical clinics will be able to invite the prospective doctor into their clinic,” Athabasca’s physician recruitment and retention committee chair Mabel Dick said in an email statement.
Dr. Leon Burger, a physician in Athabasca, agreed that recruiting a doctor capable of working at the hospital is a critical factor in the search. He said the individual would have to have the experience necessary to perform certain procedures.
“You have to be able to do resuscitation, you have to have certain prior courses done including advanced courses in resuscitation and cardiac diseases,” Burger said. “There’s stuff like setting fractures, suturing and even stuff like deliveries.”
Burger acknowledged that bringing a female physician to Athabasca would be ideal, but said bringing a qualified doctor to Athabasca as soon as possible is the priority.
“Right now for candidate number one, we need a doctor whether he is male, female – it doesn’t matter where they come from,” he said. “The second one gives us a bit of leeway and yes, definitely a female doctor would probably be very high up on the requirement list for the second one. If it’s the first one so be it, even better.”
