The president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) made a stop in Prince Albert on Wednesday evening to meet with physicians from the North Central Medical Staff Association as part of the SMA’s annual tour.
The President and Vice-President’s Tour is a tradition of the SMA and is a means by which the organization’s leadership stays in touch with physicians across the province. Meetings have previously been held in the fall, but SMA President Dr. Annette Epp said they decided to break up the tour into spring and fall sessions in order to dedicate more time to the places they visit.
“As the president and vice-president, we’re actually both fully working physicians and so, scheduling can sometimes be really challenging,” said Epp, a Saskatoon gynecologist. “It was just a matter of trying to make [the tour] a priority and not have a conflict with schedules.”
Prince Albert is the first stop of four that Epp and SMA Vice-President Dr. Andre Grobler will be making throughout May and June during their spring tour session.
Local physicians had the opportunity to share their concerns and discuss what they view as priorities to Epp during Wednesday’s meeting as the SMA proceeds with negotiations with the Ministry of Health on a new contract.
“Physicians want a new contract that is competitive with other jurisdictions and that contains provisions that will attract physicians to the province and retain them,” said Epp. “We want Saskatchewan to be an attractive place to practice medicine.”
Their previous five-year contract expired on March 31, 2022, which will remain in effect until a new contract is ratified.
Epp couldn’t provide any details around how the negotiations are currently going, but confirmed the SMA now has a fully staffed negotiations committee which is headed by Dr. Shane Sheppard.
Current issues for Saskatchewan physicians include addressing backlogs of surgeries and procedures, providing adequate resources to prevent service shutdowns, and supporting physician wellness, according to Epp.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has really brought home for physicians that we must look after ourselves in order to be able to look after our patients,” said Epp. “The SMA is asking physicians: ‘How can we help you, help others.’ I look forward to hearing from physicians on the initiatives undertaken in the area of physician wellness.”
To better support its members, the SMA has restructured its Physician Support Programs model to include four new positions – two Physician Advocates and two Workplace Wellbeing Consultants – one of each in northern and southern Saskatchewan.
“We have been able to expand this program and hire additional staff to really get down to the root causes of some of the things that are happening,” explained Epp. “For instance, in workplaces of physicians that are really standing in the way of being able to deliver high quality care and really looking at workplace wellness, which is pretty novel for medicine in general.”
Epp added that she’s excited for the future of the program going forward.