A medical practice run exclusively by nurse practitioners (NPs) is set to open in St. Albert, raising hopes of eased doctor shortages.
It’s the first such clinic to open in the city and was made possible by a new compensation model introduced in April. The province has promised to pay NPs 80 per cent of what a primary care doctor makes if NPs meet a number of conditions, including that they see a roster of at least 900 patients within two years. The new model also allows NPs to open their own practices.
Clinic owner and NP Kayla Cheung said in an email that hearing about St. Albert’s doctor shortage compelled her to apply for funding for the clinic.
“St. Albert is a growing community with a need for access to primary care,” Cheung said. “The [city’s] population is approximately 70,000, up from 68,000 in 2021. This is a strong indication that the population is growing steadily year over year and the need for access to quality primary care continues to increase. Primary care nurse practitioners are positioned to help fill this gap.”
The Harmony Family Health Clinic will open between mid-August and September at Summit Centre, located on Boudreau Road, across from the Sturgeon Community Hospital.
“This program is new in Alberta, so everyone is trying to work through the details,” Cheung said. “I am committed to opening as soon as the clinic is ready.”
Cheung called the province’s new funding model “forward-thinking.”
“The ultimate goal is to provide care to Albertans, and we are ready to get to work,” she said.
NPs are “fundamentally nurses at heart,” Cheung said. However, because of their extra training, experience and graduate degrees, they can diagnose and treat illnesses, order tests, perform physical exams, provide referrals and write prescriptions.
Three NPs are awaiting funding approval from the province before they can work at the clinic, Cheung said.
Lincoln Taylor is a St. Albert NP who expects to join the clinic in September.
Taylor said he’s excited to provide birth to late-life care in St. Albert, where he’s worked as an NP for 10 years. However, he does have concerns about future funding for the program.
“When the next election comes, whoever [is in power] … are they going to look at this program and say it's not sustainable? It's not practical? That's my biggest concern in getting in here, is playing politics with people's health care.”
He said the application process was onerous, and similar to a school project, which may deter some NPs from applying to set up independent clinics.
“People in this community don't want to drive to the south side [of Edmonton], or the university,” he said.
St. Albertans want local primary care, he said. “But they can't get care in the community, because there's nobody here.”
Doctor shortages in St. Albert
Kim Pearce lost one family doctor about five years ago and is set to lose another in August. Both physicians closed their practices, Pearce said.
She has been looking for a new doctor since May but hasn’t had any luck. She’d prefer a female doctor, which has made the search even more challenging.
Hearing that an NP clinic is planning to open in St. Albert sparked her interest. She would consider becoming a patient.
“It's hard to comment on the nurse practitioner until you have an experience with one or two,” she said. “At least it's not just, ‘Oh, your doctor's left. Find someone new.’ Who do you find? There's nobody close. It's just another great option to be able to have if need be.”
More Albertans may soon be searching for primary care.
A survey released in February from the Alberta Medical Association found about one in five practices believe they are unlikely to be financially viable after six months, while 61 per cent of family doctors said they are considering leaving Alberta’s health care system and 38 per cent are considering early retirement.
Dr. Alfred Durojaye, president of the St. Albert Sturgeon Primary Care Network, said in an email that NPs are “a vital part of the primary care team and have certainly helped provide increased access in those clinics where they are already part of the medical home team.”
“We hope that the government’s nurse practitioner program will be successful in helping to address shortages in primary care, but it will take several months to years before we see how well the program has achieved this goal,” he said.
NPs may encounter challenges with funding model, says AMA president
Dr. Paul Parks, president of the Alberta Medical Association, said the province needs all the skilled health care workers it can get to fill gaps in the system.
However, NP clinics may encounter the same problems facing the province’s primary care physicians, he said.
“They'd have to pay a lot of the same overhead costs that family physicians do, so I can't imagine them doing it all solo,” while making 80 per cent of what physicians make, he said. “Why would it work for them, and it wouldn't work for family physicians?”
NPs working independently tend to do more laboratory and diagnostic testing and consultations, adding costs to the health care system, he said.
“The best value by a long shot is having nurse practitioners … work independently, but within a clinic that's connected to family medicine specialists,” he said. “[That way], when they see patients or problems that are outside of their scope, they're immediately connected to a family medicine specialist that has the full scope.”
The province estimates there are more than 900 NPs working in Alberta.