This family doctor in rural Alberta is retiring. He's worried about what happens when he leaves

A longtime family physician in northwestern Alberta is sounding the alarm about the state of primary care in his rural community, which has been plagued with physician staffing issues and ER closures.

For the past 12 years, Dr. Harley (Bob) Irvine has practised medicine in the town of Fairview, roughly 550 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Irvine, 66, has plans to retire, hopefully sometime in 2025. He worries about what will happen to his patients and other area residents after he hangs up his stethoscope.

According to Alberta Health Services, three physicians are currently practising in Fairview, which has a population of about 2,800 people.

One of the two other doctors has told patients he plans to leave his practice in November, according to a letter that CBC News has seen.

"I'm afraid for my family more than anything, and I know half the town. I'm afraid for them, for my patients, that I'm going to retire and then they might not have health care," Irvine told CBC News.

Irvine said Fairview's doctors serve a total of about 9,000 people, many of them living on farms in the area. By his estimate, more than half of the 9,000 don't have family doctors.

The issues in Fairview are being reflected across Alberta. The Alberta Medical Association has said that more than 650,000 Albertans, many of them in rural communities, are currently searching for a family doctor. Earlier this year, the town of Hinton declared a health crisis because of a shortage of family physicians.

In a statement, Alberta Health Services said three more doctors have been recruited for Fairview. One is scheduled to begin worth this month, and all of them are slated to be in place by early next year. 

Irvine said the AHS recruitment protocol has been reactionary, rather than proactive. Recruitment efforts for a doctor to replace him shouldn't wait until after he retires, he said.

"They should have somebody else waiting in the wings or coming in, rather than make us go back down to three or four or two [doctors]," Irvine said.

He said Fairview has had as few as two doctors and as many as six in the recent past. He said he has seen 10 other doctors come and go in his time in the town.

The doctor shortage has put pressure on the emergency department at the Fairview Health Complex, which has seen intermittent closures since summer 2023. Irvine said three physicians stopped practising in Fairview in the span of a few months.

According to updated information from the AHS facilities temporary service disruption website and the Town of Fairview, the facility's emergency department will be closed for at least 21 of October's 31 days.