(CHAT News file photo)

By Brendan Miller

UCP plans to hire more young doctors to alleviate rural health-care struggles

Mar 30, 2023 | 4:53 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Health Minister Jason Copping held a virtual roundtable meeting today to discuss the impacts the 2023 provincial budget will have on rural health care.

Copping said during the meeting the COVID pandemic accelerated the number of doctors retiring in the province.

In the budget, the UCP plans to spend $158 million to increase the number of health-care workers in the province.

An extra $250 million over the next four years will fund recruitment programs to increase the number of doctors in rural areas.

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Copping says that funding will support the hiring of young doctors.

“Now that we are doing huge hiring right now, the average age is coming down because we are actually bringing young people in but the reality is if you look at the cohort, we still have a fairly large cohort at what I would call the end of career spectrum and then a large one at the beginning,” says Copping.

Copping says it’s important the age and experience of doctors be distributed across the province.