City council agrees to allot money to doctor recruitment campaign

Lethbridge City Council voted unanimously to allocate $15,000 to a family physician and recruitment campaign. Council also directed the City Manager to explore opportunities to partner with The Chinook Primary Care Network and Alberta Health Services (AHS) to support funding for an Academic Teaching clinic in Lethbridge.

“It’s just another thing, another tool in the toolbox I guess that we have here to be able to recruit and also have that training done locally so that we’ve got those doctors here. Once they see this community, this community is fantastic. We know that the doctors that are here, love what they have here, it’s a great community for families, it’s a great community for business, and it’s something that once they see that I know they will want to stay. So it’s really exciting to see that,” said Mayor Blaine Hyggen.

More than 40 thousand residents in our city currently do not have a family doctor so the city is looking at ways of addressing the shortage.