Primary Care Network aims to help service local patients lacking family doctors

By John Watson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Calgary Rural Primary Care Network (CRPN) is aiming to reduce the number of people in the local region who do not have regular healthcare providers. 

Kim Regular, education and team-based care liaison, explained the program being offered by the CRPN serves to improve access to health screenings for patients, and is the only initiative of its kind in the area. 

“We started in October 2024 after having a number of meetings with healthcare providers in our area. We wanted to help service patients who had no healthcare provider, no family physician who would help meet their health needs,” she said. “It is for unattached patients and they would get screening through our program … it involved six screenings. We do their blood glucose levels, blood pressure, cholesterol, and three cancer screens – colon, breast, and cervical.”

CRPN is operating in 14 communities outside of greater urban centers, including Arrowwood, Bragg Creek, Chestermere, Claresholm, Diamond Valley, Eden Valley, Gleichen, High River, Langdon, Nanton, Okotoks, Siksika Nation, Strathmore, and Vulcan.

The idea for the program stemmed from physicians noticing their patients who were presenting in urgent care and ER units without many of their screenings being up to date. 

There was a desire indicated to help those patients to the appropriate places for screening, as opposed to discovering their conditions in the ER or in urgent care.

Regular explained last fall, between 18 and 20 per cent of patients in the service region were noted to have no regular healthcare providers. 

“When we started, there was approximately 20 per cent of the population that were unattached in our area, so particularly in the Strathmore-Chestermere area, there are a lot of physicians who have left that area. We were trying to meet the need and get some of those patients serviced,” she said. “(The program) has really made a difference for some patients. The other part we have been able to do is when we talk with a patient that had no healthcare provider, if they had complex medical conditions that need to be serviced right away, we tapped into some of our local healthcare providers to take them on.”

Patients and community members living outside of Calgary who do not have family doctors are able to self-refer themselves to the program over the phone or in person. 

Patients are able to call 587-333-3751, or text their names to 403-325-4030 to begin the service and referral process.

“This is actually a pilot project. We are doing some Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles to get more and more patients involved in it. It was actually presented at a big Primary Care Network forum in Edmonton in May,” said Regular. “There was lots of interest from the province on it just because of the number of patients who do not have a health care provider. There are ongoing presentations and a lot of interest around this program.”

The ongoing goals for the program include servicing more patients, spreading awareness, and eventually aiding people through navigating other health problems which require ongoing care.