Snapshot May 2022

Dear Specialist colleague:

In the last few weeks we have seen increasing media focus on the healthcare crisis in BC. Family Doctors have rightfully broadcast the crisis in primary care, and their voice is being heard.

Unfortunately, there is also a parallel crisis in Specialty Care. While we share many of the ever-intensifying burdens of our Family Physician colleagues such as rising overhead costs, unpaid demands on our time and physician burnout, we also face unique hurdles of our own, including:

• Surgical resource and capacity deficits, with escalating surgical waitlists
• Untenable patient wait times for Specialist consultation services
• Threat of nurse practitioners replacing Specialists (witness the current Ministry push for Nurse Anesthetists)
• A referral system that does not reflect the collaborative Specialist care provided for BC’s most complex patients
• Co-opting and obfuscating of the word Specialist
• Not enough Specialist training positions and post-training Specialist resources to serve the populace
• Lack of meaningful engagement with Specialist physicians to work on solutions to these and other problems

The crisis in Specialty Care is every bit as real as the crisis in Primary Care.

The Consultant Specialists of BC Executive is taking steps to ensure your voice is also heard:

• We are demanding Doctors of BC highlight the challenges facing Specialists alongside those of our Family Physician colleagues.
• We have underscored to Doctors of BC that any negotiations outside the Physician Master Agreement (PMA) MUST result in balanced benefit for Specialists and Family Physicians
• We are monitoring the negotiations with government to ensure balanced benefit to both Specialists and Family Physicians within the PMA

Consultant Specialists of BC is the only organization representing the collective voice of Specialists. We know the challenges you are facing and are constantly advocating on your behalf. Strong advocacy, however, requires strong financial support and member numbers. Many Specialists have benefited from the advocacy done by Consultant Specialists of BC for the past 32 years without contributing to the funding of this organization. To ensure that the Specialist voice is heard, we need you to pay your dues now.

If you are already a member, thank you; please encourage your colleagues to join today and feel free to forward this update to them! If you are not yet a member, join us and help us ensure your voice is heard and the crisis in Specialty care is addressed.

To join, go to https://doctorsofbc.ca/account/sections Scroll down to Consultant Specialists of BC, click on the + sign, check the box for regular $450; first-year practice/disabled/parental leave $225; OR student/resident/retired free. Click the JOIN SELECTED SECTIONS AND SOCIETIES button to pay.

_________________________________________________
Dr Chris Hoag, President

phone: (604) 739-1334
[email protected]

I acknowledge that this work takes place on the lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.