Retired doctor gives Alberta town 6-month reprieve

A doctor is coming out of retirement for six months to give the southeastern Alberta town of Milk River some medical relief.

Milk River's two doctors are closing their clinic, which serves the town as well as the surrounding farming and ranching community including the villages of Warner and Coutts, on Dec. 30.

Dr. Elisabeth Lewke-Bogle announced this week she will start seeing patients in January for six months to give the town more time to attract permanent physicians.

Milk RiverMayor Terry Michaelis said they've tried to contact former doctors who've worked in the town, and Alberta Health has tried recruiting internationally, with no luck.

Doctors in the town, about 300 kilometres south of Calgary and close to the U.S. border, work long hours with a heavy caseload, said the mayor.

Closest medical centre more than hour's drive away

"We're in the process of forming a doctor recruitment committee. People within the community they have friends or relatives who are doctors, or know doctors. We're trying to go through that avenue to see if any of them might be interested in coming, or know someone who might," Michaelis said.

The closest centre for medical care is Lethbridge, about 85 kilometres north of the town, and further for people who live in smaller communities.

"We go out another close to a hundred kilometres from Milk River, away from Lethbridge. So those peopleespecially are in a real jam if we lose services. We're most concerned about the hour [it takes to get there] and those people could never make it to a facility in that time to save their lives," said Michaelis.

The mayor is floating the idea of the town and villages buying the clinic so a doctor could open a practice without the additional building expense, according to the Lethbridge Herald.