Cold Lake buying medical clinic in hopes of attracting doctors

Cold Lake council wants to buy a local medical clinic in hopes that it will help entice more doctors to come to a community where 40 per cent of residents lack access to a family physician.

The city plans to spend $1.85 million to buy the Glacier Gate Medical Clinic from two physicians who are leaving Cold Lake.

A five-person board of directors would run the clinic as a for-profit municipally controlled corporation or MCC, at arms-length from the city. The building also houses a pharmacy. 

"The time for staying on the sidelines while providing substantial taxpayer funding in the hopes of resolving these issues in the local health-care system is over," the draft business plan states.

"Rather than remain a passive observer and a source of recruitment funding, the City of Cold Lake is now looking to establish a strong foothold in the active recruitment of physicians so that it can influence change for the community that will meet its health-care needs."

Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland said the city wants to expand the number of physicians, not just replace those who retire or move away.

"What council's vision here was, let's get in here, let's get a foot in the door, let's learn how to run a clinic," Copeland said. 

"The idea is to get a few more doctors in the community to take the pressure off our existing doctors because we feel that they're just overtaxed."

A municipal census conducted in 2022 found that 40 per cent of Cold Lake residents don't have access to a family doctor and with another eight per cent seeing a physician outside the community. About 46 per cent of respondents said they wait over three weeks to get an appointment. 

Since he first became mayor in 2007, Copeland said the number of doctors in Cold Lake has stayed the same while the population has increased. He said new physicians are recruited only to replace those who have departed. 

The city wants to bring in additional practitioners who can accept new patients. 

Alberta Health Services is aware of and supports the Cold Lake proposal, a spokesperson said. 

Municipally controlled corporations are typically utility companies such as ENMAX in Calgary and Aquatera which is based in the Grande Prairie region. Municipal Affairs isn't aware of another municipality that has used the MCC model for a health-care facility.

Dr. Samantha Myhr, president of the rural medicine section of the Alberta Medical Association, has looked at the Cold Lake proposal.