Lloydminster runs two largely independent primary care systems that do not coordinate with each other. A health assessment says the gap is driving thousands of patients straight to the emergency department.
Before a patient reaches the emergency department, the operating room, or a hospital bed, they are supposed to pass through primary care first.
In Lloydminster, that front door is broken.
“Access to primary care is currently limited in hours and capacity, particularly with walk-in and urgent care options, leading to increased reliance on emergency room visits,” the Lloydminster Health Service Needs Assessment states.
The city runs two largely independent primary care systems. One operates under Alberta’s Primary Care Network model. The other operates under Saskatchewan’s Prairie North Health Centre structure. They do not coordinate with each other.
“The two primary care systems do not coordinate and communicate with each other, creating challenges in understanding the primary care system as a whole in Lloydminster,” the assessment states.
In plain terms: nobody has a full picture of who is getting care, who is not, and where the gaps are. Because the two systems cannot see each other, the city cannot plan for itself.
The attachment problem
Patient attachment means having a regular family doctor or primary care provider who knows your history. In Lloydminster’s Saskatchewan health network, the patient attachment rate is 40 per cent.
Six in 10 patients on the Saskatchewan side of the city do not have a regular provider.
The assessment cautions that this number is complicated by the border. Residents on the Saskatchewan side sometimes receive care on the Alberta side, and vice versa. Those cross-border visits do not show up in either province’s attachment data.
“Engagement with leadership indicated that in Lloydminster, primary care access is a substantial challenge, mirroring what the attachment rates represent,” the assessment states.
The numbers are unreliable and the situation is still bad.
Why recruiting doctors is harder here
Lloydminster’s physician shortage is not unique in rural Canada. But it is worse here than it needs to be, for reasons specific to this city.
“Dual licensure and reporting requirements make recruitment more difficult, as physicians without prior ties to Lloydminster may prefer communities without the added administrative burden,” the assessment states.
A doctor choosing between Lloydminster and a single-province rural community faces the same pay, the same isolation, and in Lloydminster, twice the paperwork. The assessment is direct: that extra burden is pushing physicians elsewhere.
The consequences land in the emergency department.
“Limited physician capacity constrains patient attachment as well as plans for urgent primary care, pushing more patients toward deferred care or Emergency Department use,” the document states. “This contributes to poor health outcomes, long ED wait times, and inappropriate utilization of acute care services.”
The information gap that hurts patients
When a patient crosses the border for care, their records do not always follow.
“Because each province cannot easily access results from across the provincial line, the test is often re-ordered in the patient’s home province,” the assessment states.
Duplicate tests. Duplicate costs. Gaps in follow-up care.
“Alberta providers frequently report difficulties obtaining acute care reports from Lloydminster Hospital, a challenge also experienced by primary care providers in private clinics without formal SHA affiliation,” the document states. “These gaps in communication can result in incomplete or absent follow-up, leading to avoidable poor health outcomes.”
The word “avoidable” belongs to the government’s own consultants. Poor health outcomes that do not need to happen, because a fax machine cannot cross a provincial border efficiently.
What the assessment recommends
The assessment recommends establishing a Primary Access Clinic at an existing Saskatchewan primary care site, specifically Prairie North Plaza, operating in the late afternoon and potentially early morning to fill the gap in after-hours care.
Low-acuity patients presenting to the emergency department would be redirected there for same-day or next-day appointments.
“The inadequate coverage of unscheduled and after-hours care is a direct contributor to unnecessary ED visits, with parents of young children often having no alternative for urgent, but non-emergent, health concerns outside of business hours,” the document states.
The assessment also recommends extending primary care clinic hours, expanding nurse practitioner-led care, integrating virtual allied health services including dietetics, physiotherapy, social work, and counselling, and streamlining dual-licensing processes for providers who want to work across both sides of the border.
None of it requires a new building. None of it requires a major capital investment. The assessment describes these as low-infrastructure, high-impact changes.
They have not been announced.
“Information sharing challenges are assumed to persist,” the assessment states, describing the likely trajectory if nothing changes. “This will continue to add workload to primary care providers and allied care staff who will continue to be required to devote additional time to acquire patient information from providers in the other province.”
Two governments received that forecast in December 2025.
This is the next part in a multi-part investigative series revealing what they don’t want us to know about the Lloydminster Health Needs Assessment.
Read the whole series – Lloydminster Health Needs Assessment: Investigation
