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Over the last several months, multiple rural hospitals around the province have been forced to temporarily close beds or emergency room services due to a lack of doctors and nurses.
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Need for locum doctors in rural Alberta hospitals jumped in 2021 Back to video
Health Minister Tyler Shandro has said doctors taking vacations is exacerbating a longstanding problem, while the NDP says physicians are being driven away by a toxic relationship with the government.
According to documents obtained by the NDP, during the summer of 2020, from July through September, there were between five and 14 gaps in rural hospitals that needed to be covered by locum doctors. This year, that number sits at more than 140 in 32 different rural communities.