Recognizing 2025 Rhapsody Physician Award nominee: Dr. Robert A. Halse
Community: Ponoka
It is hard to keep up with Ponoka family physician Dr. Robert Halse.
Whether he is seeing patients, sharing his expertise with colleagues and learners, working as a rural health advocate or volunteering in the community, Dr. Halse is always on the move.
“He is a tough guy to keep up with,” writes Dr. Cayla Gilbert, who trained under Dr. Halse during her clerkship and now works as a colleague.
“His pace of work and his pace of walking are unmatched.” Dr. Gilbert is one of several people who backed Dr. Halse’s nomination for a 2025 RhPAP Physician Rhapsody Award.
Dr. Gilbert considers her time with Dr. Halse as “incredibly privileged.” He helped teach her clinical courage to “be the doctor my community needs,” while understanding the “social and cultural milieu” of patients within the Wolf Creek Primary Care Network and stretching into the neighbouring Montana First Nation.
“This knowledge can underpin the trust your patients and community hold in you.”
Dr. Brendan Bunting says his colleague is a skilled anesthetist with emergency department expertise who shares his skills both in the community 40 km northwest of Red Deer, and the surrounding area.
“He seems to be able to drop everything and arrive almost immediately when a colleague would ask for help. I, myself, can thank him for his repeated help in circumstances such as these, but perhaps it is our patients that have to thank him the most,” notes Dr. Bunting.
Ponoka’s mayor, Kevin Ferguson, knows Dr. Halse well. The doctor has cared for him, his children, and parents throughout his 31 years of practice.
Dr. Halse also looks out for the greater community by encouraging new doctors to set up local practices through his attraction and retention work.
“He’s become the embodiment of what a rural doctor should be,” says Ferguson.
It’s not uncommon for Dr. Halse to include town council, healthcare stakeholders, business leaders, and community members during meetings with prospective physicians to highlight the community spirit, notes Jamil Rawj, a local pharmacist and patient.
“His goal was to ensure a community effort to assist in the recruitment effort.”