As many as 100 doctors in northwest Calgary could retire over the next five years, a new survey suggests.

Of the 200 doctors in the northwest who responded to a study by the Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network, 30 per cent said they were planning to give up their practices within five years, while another 20 per cent said they were seriously considering that option.

Dr. John Bradley meets with patient Bonnie Embree. (CBC)

This winter, Dr. John Bradley is closing his northwest family practice after 36 years.

"I am basically a workaholic," he told CBC News on Monday. "I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have done all these years, but it's maybe time to do a few more things for myself."

But he says some younger doctors in the city are retiring early because of the burden of increasing rents and operating costs.

"I think [for] a lot of them it's mainly a financial aspect of medicine. Expenses have gone up. I think you can make an adequate income from medicine but there's still a lot of undue expenses that you have to look at."

Bradley had 4,000 patients at the height of his practice, and many now have to find another physician.

"It's devastating, it really is, to try and find someone that you trust and … will listen to you, and you have to start a whole brand new rapport," said Bradley's longtime patient, Bonnie Embree. "[That's] if you can find somebody, and you don't really know where to start to look for someone."

The Alberta College of Family Physicians estimates up to 250,000 people in Calgary don't have a regular doctor, and many of them depend on walk-in clinics.

"We can't afford to lose even one family doc," said Dr. Rick Ward, president of the college.

Bradley has been telling his patients to watch local newspapers for notices from doctors accepting new patients.