The military is hoping a new agreement with Medicentres will help local families find family doctors.
At a signing ceremony Friday, the Canadian Forces signed a memorandum of understanding with Medicentres that will see the military and the company work together to make it easier for families to find a doctor.
“We have roughly 6,800 regular force dependents on the base, 900 reserve dependents and one of the real challenges for these folks sometimes is finding a family doctor,” said base commander Lt.-Col. John Reiffenstein.
The deal is not a financial one, but is built around more communication. The military has promised to make Medicentres more aware of rotations and deployments so they can be better prepared for the wave of new families and patients that would come with them.
“It doesn’t guarantee our folks are going to have a family doctor, that is more of a Canada wide challenge, but I am really pleased to see that we have taken the step that is going to make it a little bit easier,” said Reiffenstein.
The Military Family Resource Centre, which is often the first point of contact for new military families, is also going to be part of the initiative.
The centre doesn’t currently keep a list of family doctors who are accepting physicians, because those lists are constantly changing, but it is a big concern for local families.
“Outside of child care, health care is one of the first questions that they have and as everybody has said, finding a doctor is really a struggle across Canada,” said Roza Parlin, the centre’s executive director.
She said knowing the Medicentres are there will make that process a lot easier.
“This does provide a lot more flexibility for us to be able to say, we know this is a great option you might consider.”
The military is also pledging to offer its physicians to help educate Medicentre staff about some of the unique health challenges military families face.
“We are hoping to get some education, some more learning we are going to pass that on to our employees and also our doctors,” said Dr. Arif Bhimji, Medicentres’ chief medical officer.
Bhimji said those health concerns can include everything from separation anxiety and increased worry, to just the challenge of managing a family’s health during a move from one community to another.
“We will know when deployments will be made so we can assist the families through those particular times. We will know when people are coming into the system.”
Bhimji said he expects the new partnership will lead to increased demand at the company’s centres in St. Albert, Castledowns and the Belle Rive Medicentre, just south of the Edmonton Garrison.
He said it is ultimately about better care.
“What our memorandum of understanding does is, it helps our troops and their families get a better level of care when they are here in Edmonton.”
