Northern Alberta’s first standalone nurse practitioner led practice will open its doors in Wembley in November. 

Nurse practitioners (NP) Chantelle Gray and Tegan Ruether are set to take over operations of the medical clinic with a third expected to join the practice next summer.

Gray and Ruether are graduates of Athabasca University (AU) and are homegrown Northern Alberta talent. Gray hails from Grande Prairie and Ruether from Fairview.  

“They’re local, they’re personable, community minded, passionate,” said Town of Wembley Coun. Rebecca Ketchum.

“I don’t think we're going to find a better fit for our community than these ladies.”

The clinic closed in May after Dr. Angela Luckham announced her relocation. Since then, the Town of Wembley has been working to re-establish services there.

Ketchum told the News the hope is to see the clinic re-open in November.

“We had put word out that we were looking, and as word spread, the NPs found out that we were looking and inquired about taking a tour of our clinic,” Ketchum said.

After the closure, the town leased the space and purchased the assets within the premises for over $15,000 to ensure it was ready for another practitioner. Ketchum said the town has budgetted $150,000 for the re-opening effort. 

She said the town has held several meetings with the NPs over the summer.

The position is possible due to the Primary Care Program (PCP), a provincial initiative launched in April of last year, where the province pays NPs to operate their own independent clinics.

“That just made a huge difference,” Ketchum said.

“It was kind of like everything had fallen into place for us, which felt good because that's not usually how it goes, especially not with health care.”

Per the PCP, each NP will be expected to count a minimum of 900 patients to a maximum of 1,500.

Ketchum said NPs bill out services to Alberta Health Services, similar to a physician. 

She said the final steps will be forming a nonprofit organization which will oversee the operations and pay for the first year of the lease on the building. 

“The nonprofit will take over all of (the operational) bills as soon as we have it up and running,” she said.

“We decided as a council it's in the best interest for the town that it's not run directly by the town.

“I'm excited to see our community receive a full scope of care and somebody that really wants to provide that for them.”

Working with Wembley 

AU graduate Gray told the News that she and Ruether had previously been looking into opening a practice in Grande Prairie.

“As we started to hear more about the opportunity with the Primary Care Program that the Alberta government launched, we started doing more digging,” she said.

“We talked to the city, and didn’t get anywhere too far, and then we approached the county, and they had kind of put us in contact with one of the members of Wembley council.”

As registered nurses with master’s degrees, NPs have the same scope as a family doctor, Gray said.

“It’s just very exciting to have our own panel of patients that we can get to know and help achieve their health, and see them on a consistent basis.”

The waitlist isn’t open for the clinic yet.

“That’s part of what we’re trying to get organized at this point, because we don't want it to be this big, stressful thing for people,” Gray said.

“We’re still trying to figure out what the best strategy (for that).”

Sexsmith explores NP possibility

Sexsmith is also exploring the possibility of hiring a nurse practitioner. Town council moved Aug. 25 to have administration bring back more information about attracting a nurse practitioner under the PCP.

“It opens up some new possibilities that have never really been an option for communities,” Potter said.

“We’ve had a great working relationship with our clinic, but there have been challenges in attracting new health care professionals,” she said.

“We knew that there were changes coming. We would be remiss not to look at the opportunity that’s there.”

Potter said there is space in the medical clinic for another practitioner but “more than that, we’re saying we want to explore the possibility and see if it's a good fit for us as a community.”

She said the town is in an “exploratory” phase.

“It's just the beginning phases of saying, is this something that we can do? Can we attract nurse practitioners? Does the billing model work?

“There’s a lot more details that need to be sorted out on that front before we get to the step of what space they could use.”

Potter said the town will continue to look for physicians with currently one physician practicing out of the medical clinic. 

Saddle Hills NP on ML

Meanwhile in Saddle Hills County, the nurse practitioner office there may be temporarily closed in October.

County Communications Co-ordinator Monica Rogers told the News that nurse practitioner Palvi Sharma, who has operated in the region since March of last year, is expected to go on maternity leave this fall, leaving the status of the clinic uncertain.

“She is due at the end of October, so will be leaving at around that time,” Rogers said.

“Palvi has seen over 300 patients to date, and it’s definitely been incredibly popular. We are continuing to try and hire to fill the role, but may be temporarily closed for up to 18 months.”