CALGARY, Alberta, March 25 (UPI) -- A Calgary, Alberta, medical clinic says it has a severe patient shortage, despite the number of people in the Canadian city without family doctors.
The Calgary Foothills Primary Care Center said it was expecting to have between 1,000 and 1,500 patients once it got up and running, but in the three months since it opened, it has only signed up 200 people, the Calgary Herald reported Tuesday.
Doctors at the clinic, which is designed to treat patients suffering from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, said the situation is baffling when juxtaposed with figures estimating the number of people in the city without a family doctor at 200,000.
"We thought, 'If we built it, they will come.' We're not sure why that hasn't happened," said Dr. Richard Ward, who helped found the center. "We were told we would be full in one month."
Lorraine Bucholtz, director of service delivery with the primary care network, said the clinic is considering adding patients with arthritis, mental illness and other chronic illnesses to help offset the shortage, the newspaper reported
