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At the same time that the COVID-19 virus was starting to spread around the world, concern about planned cuts to how physicians are funded in Alberta was beginning to grow at a viral rate within the rural caucus of the United Conservative Party.

“Rural MLAs are worried,” said one, who wished not to be named.

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“We’re hearing a lot of concern from our constituents and doctors, so we’re raising the issue every chance we get,” the MLA said.

“No one knows better than us the struggle rural communities face recruiting and keeping physicians.”

No one but rural physicians, perhaps, and citizens who have been waiting for years to find their own family doctor.

Dr. Keeve De Villiers, a family physician in Bonnyville, a town in northeastern Alberta near Cold Lake, says a job posting seeking another doctor for Bonnyville has been up for the past 18 months with no nibbles.

“The last time I checked, the waiting list of patients needing a family doctor was anywhere from about 600 to 700 people,” said De Villiers, who was successfully wooed to the area from his native South Africa about five years ago.