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| June 12, 2007 | Back to List | Print this Page  | | Cold Lake Chosen for New Rural Community Award | | |
The Alberta Rural Physician Action Plan (RPAP) and the Alberta Chambers of Commerce selected the City of Cold Lake from four nominees as the inaugural recipient of the Rural Community Award of Distinction. Other nominees included the Town of Bashaw, the Town of Manning and MD of Northern Lights #22 and the Town of Whitecourt. The Award was presented in Peace River at the Alberta Chambers of Commerce Annual General Meeting 26 May. The City of Cold Lake was selected as the 2007 recipient community because its nomination best exemplified the overall attributes of successful community involvement and partnership.
“It is so easy to be complacent and say recruiting a physician is the responsibility of the doctors, or the hospital or the health region,” says Dr. Clayne Steed, Chair, RPAP Board of Directors.” “These communities recognized change and how critical it is for the community to be involved. You may be recruiting a physician to the practice but you also need to recruit the family to the community. Doing this has made these communities successful.”
This new award annually recognizes a rural Alberta community that has best developed innovative and collaborative approaches and solutions resulting in successful physician recruitment and retention in their area. Cold Lake was selected as best exemplifying the overall attributes of successful community involvement and partnership. Following a potential loss of obstetrics and gynecology services and a severe shortage of family physicians a few years ago, a community coalition was formed which has established strategies that have resulted in the successful recruitment of a variety of physicians and other health care personnel. The coalition is also interested in retention strategies and plans to host a recruitment and retention conference in 2008.
Rural communities can play an important role in co-managing their local physician resources by understanding the unique challenges facing physicians, creating physician-friendly environments and by participating more fully in recruiting and retaining physicians.
“This award recognizes the importance of all partners in the community cooperating to resolve the critical shortage of rural doctors in Alberta,” says Ken Kobly, CEO of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce. “We are especially pleased to recognize the valuable role played by Community Chambers of Commerce.” The Alberta Chambers of Commerce (ACC) is a federation of 127 Chambers of Commerce in Alberta and which in turn represent over 22,000 businesses.
Recruiting and retaining physicians in many rural communities is an ongoing challenge. While living and working in rural Alberta brings many benefits to physicians - such as practising a more comprehensive hands-on style of medicine, contributing to the fabric of a rural community and enjoying the quieter pace of rural living and the beauty of the rural landscapes - practising in small communities can also pose unique challenges for physicians. These may include higher workloads, demanding on-call schedules, limited access to specialists, and difficult strains on their spouses and children.
| | For more information, please contact: | | Rhonda Crooks | | RPAP Communications Consultant | | Rural Physician Action Plan | | 403.208.5402 | | Rhonda.Crooks@rpap.ab.ca | | www.rpap.ab.ca |
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