Much has been made in government circles about getting more for the taxpayer’s dollar when it comes to healthcare services. It seems the Bashaw community's mix of cooperation, collaboration and pragmatism is paying off.

Bashaw’s rural primary care clinic began operation in March, 2025, the result of community leaders looking for more collaboration to deliver better results. Town of Bashaw councillor and comprehensive collaborative response model co-leader Jackie Northey stated Bashaw’s medical clinic made some changes, invited physicians from other communities to practice there and are seeing results.

“It’s been incredible,” she said. “We’ve been hearing such incredible stories. We’re excited and it’s going very, very well.” Northey noted that she herself has only heard positive feedback about the project.

In a phone interview July 14 Northey stated Bashaw’s collaborative response model was formed by community leaders in 2017 to look at increasing cooperation and in effect getting the most out of every service the Bashaw region has to offer. The model seeks to help those moving through “The System” find the help or service they’re looking for with a minimum of fuss or muss.

As leaders wanted to expand the model’s reach to health services they took a field trip to Sylvan Lake where a successful rural primary care clinic was functioning. Northey noted after touring the Sylvan Lake project, Bashaw leaders felt it would work in their community.

She noted leaders had the goal of a clinic that had clients triaged after they walked through the door; with multiple health and wellness disciplines represented clients could find the treatment they needed quickly and with the health professional they needed, which sometimes meant other than a physician. Northey noted this freed up physicians to focus on clients who specifically required their skills.

Since opening in March the primary care clinic in Bashaw has been so successful the Village of Alix has budded off its own. Northey stated the strength of such a primary care clinic model is that it can be fairly easily customized to a community’s specific needs. The Bashaw clinic mostly caters to people who live within the Bashaw RCMP detachment boundaries and the immediate region.

Northey related that a few years ago the Bashaw community was facing the exodus of several of their doctors; in response, some changes were proposed to the local clinic. For example, the Bashaw community owns the clinic, not the doctors. Northey stated many health professionals don’t want to run an office or be landlords, so this frees them up to do their primary jobs and not worry about anything else.

Something that made the project easier was the fact Bashaw’s medical clinic was already in great shape with plenty of room and equipment. Just a little bit of tweaking was needed for the primary care model.

Looking ahead Northey noted that community leaders would like to co-locate at the clinic so social issues could be addressed; having those services under the same roof as healthcare would simplify things for many clients.

As people in the community talked about the new clinic approach Northey stated word has got around that surrounding emergency rooms are seeing a bit less stress as it’s felt the clinic is better suited for certain situations.

Leaders are also thinking of conducting some major fundraising with the intention to approach some large businesses and corporations for financial support.

Northey added that it’s thought the Sylvan Lake and Bashaw clinics have illustrated well how a collaborative, practical approach can have a lot of benefit for everyone involved.