A community-led clinic helped save a rural Albertan’s life. But short-term grants leave its future uncertain

For the last 44 years, Colleen Trautman and her husband Randy say getting routine medical care in Bashaw, Alta., hasn’t been easy. Persistent physician shortages in the central Alberta town meant that Randy – now in his 60s – went years without seeing a family doctor.

That changed early last year when a community-supported medical clinic opened its doors in the town of about 900 people, roughly 130 kilometres south of Edmonton.

It was during a routine screening there that doctors discovered he had early-stage colon cancer.

Randy was immediately referred for further testing and underwent surgery in September 2025.

“We got access to doctors,” Colleen said. “My husband’s here today probably because of that, because he was never going to a doctor.”

Ensuring local rural residents like Randy receive regular access to medical care was a challenge the community of Bashaw took upon itself to resolve, said Christine Buelow, the executive director of Bashaw and District Support Services (BDSS), a non-profit that organizes social sector services for the area. 

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After dealing with long travel distances, lengthy emergency room wait times in nearby Stettler and Red Deer, and the potential closure of the previous clinic, Buelow said community members took action.

She noted that community members started exploring a team-based clinic model for residents when the former clinic showed signs it was on the verge of closing down.

“It was minimal hours when [the previous clinic] did exist. We had one physician relocate and another that was looking to retire,” Buelow said.

She said the community then raised around $100,000 through BDSS and secured provincial grants, opening the Bashaw Medical Clinic in March 2025.

However, Jackie Northey, co-leader of the Bashaw Community Resource Centre, noted that while provincial grants like the Rural Team Recruitment Grant are helpful, their one- to two-year cycles fail to provide long-term stability.

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“In every small community, you have to raise funds for everything,” Northey said. “If we could get some sustainable funding, we wouldn’t need to continue to look all the time.”

Now, neighbouring municipalities near Bashaw whose residents rely on the community’s clinic are stepping in to lobby the province for a long-term funding solution. 

Lacombe County, supported by Stettler County, is sponsoring a resolution for the upcoming Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) fall conference, calling on the province to establish sustainable operational funding and support for such community-led rural primary care clinics.

Lacombe County Reeve John Ireland said many people living in his county also depend on the Bashaw clinic for care.

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“It’s a tremendous amount of energy being expended to keep it economically viable,” Ireland said. “It would be nice to have a constant stream that they could rely on.”

In a statement to CBC News, an acting press secretary for the Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services said the province supports rural clinics through programs like the Rural Team Recruitment Grant and the Municipally Supported Clinics Grant.

“Alberta is helping rural clinics strengthen operations, recruit care teams and improve patient access,” the statement said, adding that the province will continue evaluating how best to support sustainable rural primary care.

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The new Bashaw clinic uses a team-based model. While rotating physicians provide in-person coverage a few days a week through a partnership with the Sylvan Family Health Centre, nurses, pharmacists and support staff also provide care five days a week. 

“In the past, our clinic saw about 300 patients, and right now we’re sitting close to 1,500,” Buelow said, noting the clinic also serves a surrounding population of about 10,000 rural residents. 

In addition to primary care, Buelow said one thing that makes the clinic unique is that it integrates social supports through staff called “navigators.”

The “navigators” help make the model a one-stop shop with many non-medical needs community members might have and so that people don’t have to leave town, said Theresa Fuller, the Town of Bashaw’s chief administrative officer.

“If you need housing, if you need a food bank, or if you need to see a physician … or [if you have] medical issues or mental health issues, you can walk in that one door,” Fuller said.

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Similar to Bashaw, grassroots primary care clinics have emerged in other rural Alberta municipalities, including Hinton, Grande Cache and Consort.

Dr. Melanie Hnatiuk, president of the Alberta College of Family Physicians, said these models reflect the challenges rural communities face but also align with what early-career doctors want.

“What I hear from these newer generations of physicians is that this is exactly the type of environment that they want to practise in,” Hnatiuk said. 

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“They want to work in teams. It’s more satisfying for them, and they don’t have to be experts in business.”

Hnatiuk added that team-based primary care is also cost-effective in the long run by keeping rural patients out of emergency departments.

For the Trautmans, the impact of the local clinic in Bashaw has been crucial.

“I said to my husband, ‘You realize this would be a very different story had the clinic not [opened],’ Colleen said. “It just wasn’t his time yet. But it is time to tell the story on how we can help each other.”