Visits to website top 1 million as Albertans struggle to find family doctors
Website report reveals significant drop in providers accepting new patients
Visits to the Alberta Find a Doctor website topped 1 million for the first time last year, as Albertans struggled to find a primary care provider accepting new patients.
A total of 1,184,948 visits were made to albertafindadoctor.ca from April 2023 to March 2024, a jump of 28 per cent compared to the previous year. Since the PCN-run website was launched in 2019, it has attracted a total of 3,387,197 visits.
However, the number of doctors taking patients dropped 20 per cent to 163 province-wide, as of Monday, April 15. That included 11 in South Zone, 47 in Calgary and the surrounding area, 19 in central Alberta, 31 in the Edmonton area and 55 in the north. There were 887 doctors listed as accepting patients in 2020.
Alberta Find a Doctor’s annual By the Numbers report also shows that 61 nurse practitioners are listed on the website, but only four are taking new patients.
Alberta Find a Doctor is one of the initiatives referenced in the Government of Alberta’s two-year Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) implementation plan. It is set to be upgraded and expanded as part of efforts to digitally enable primary health care.
A total of 1,184,948 visits were made to albertafindadoctor.ca from April 2023 to March 2024, a jump of 28 per cent compared to the previous year. Since the PCN-run website was launched in 2019, it has attracted a total of 3,387,197 visits.
However, the number of doctors taking patients dropped 20 per cent to 163 province-wide, as of Monday, April 15. That included 11 in South Zone, 47 in Calgary and the surrounding area, 19 in central Alberta, 31 in the Edmonton area and 55 in the north. There were 887 doctors listed as accepting patients in 2020.
Alberta Find a Doctor’s annual By the Numbers report also shows that 61 nurse practitioners are listed on the website, but only four are taking new patients.
Alberta Find a Doctor is one of the initiatives referenced in the Government of Alberta’s two-year Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) implementation plan. It is set to be upgraded and expanded as part of efforts to digitally enable primary health care.
