Rural Healthcare

NDP Leader Rachel Notley says if her party forms government after the spring election, its goal would be for a million or more Albertans to be able to see their family doctor within a day or two near where they live.

Leger and The Association for Canadian Studies surveyed 1,554 Canadian adults over a two-day period in January.

Mayor John Norman said there are several doctors who want to live and work in the seaside community of about 3,200 people. But the high patient volumes and gruelling 24-hour shifts required at the local healthcentre have turned them away.

Manitoba was supposed to have more nurse forensic examiners trained by now, said the nurses union at a recent press conference.

Depending on their doctor's assessment, patients will be transported by air or across a remote highway with no cell service.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the money will be geared toward small and rural hospitals who do not yet have MRI machines.

Manitoba has the third-lowest rate of doctors in the country, said the organization's president Dr. Candace Bradshaw, and it's only going to get worse.