Readers who were living in Estevan or Lampman in the 80s probably still remember a young family physician named Dr. Barb Konstantynowicz. Her practice in this corner of the province came to an end a long time ago, but being a vice-president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) within frames of the provincial tour, Konstantynowicz came to the Energy City on Sept. 23.
The Estevan meeting was one of 11 stops as the SMA president and the vice-president tour the province to hear from local physicians and discuss the issues and challenges they are dealing with.
“It’s been a tradition for quite a number of years, because docs in the province each face very similar concerns and issues, but also very specific to their areas of work, the populations that’s there or the specialties they practise in,” said Konstantynowicz.
The SMA is a professional membership organization and is the trusted voice of Saskatchewan’s more than 2,400 practising physicians. It negotiates for and on behalf of Saskatchewan doctors; supports the educational, professional, economic and personal well-being of physicians; and advocates for a high-quality and patient-centred health care system.
Konstantynowicz noted that it is hard for the SMA to understand what issues doctors across the province are facing unless they actually have the opportunity to meet face-to-face and talk to them about what’s going on in their part of the province and what issues are there.
Prior to Estevan, the meetings were held in Rosetown, Swift Current and Saskatoon. In the past, the tour route was based on health regions, and until SMA sees if things have changed after going to a single health authority, they decided to cover the same sites. Konstantynowicz noted that this way they can attract the physicians from the surrounding areas and have better representation.
“Our goal is to go around the province and to listen to the physicians that are here to see if there are issues, not that we anticipate an issue,” explained Konstantynowicz.
Concerns about the evolving relationship between the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and the province’s physicians and bylaws and rules that articulate this relationship are one of the points that are being discussed during the meetings.
“There were regions before, what would happen in one region sometimes would be very different from what happened in another. Now that we have a single health authority we all have to be governed by the same rules and regulations. So bylaws are now being negotiated between Saskatchewan Health Authority and the SMA to try to come up with what makes sense,” said Konstantynowicz.
She went on, opening it up with an example of privileges.
“Physicians are granted a thing called privileges. It means that in my community I can work in this area of medicine with these procedures that I can do. But only in my area previously. Now we have to figure out how that works for the whole province. If we have a specialist in Saskatoon who wants to do the same surgery, for example, in Regina, how does that privileging work? Can they cross over to different locations and how is that going to work?” said Konstantynowicz. adding that the problem is also relevant to family doctors.
Beside, SMA creates a field for peer support. Quite often physicians struggle to find the balance between the system rules and the best options for their patients. Doctors are coming across such questions as to how to get home care for the patient, how to get mental healthcare for the patient, how to look after the seniors in their practice and so on. And the SMA tour helps doctors to exchange experience and sometimes find answers using examples of their colleagues.
Another issue discussed during the tour meetings is physicians’ wellness. Repeated studies have shown many of Canada’s physicians feel burned out. The SMA is in the process of expanding its Physician Support Program, which is a support mechanism within the SMA for physicians. SMA president Dr. Allan Woo said enhancing collegiality among all physicians by promoting get-togethers would go a long way toward helping physicians who feel they are working in a silo, isolated from their peers.
“We are trying to be respectful of what our strategic plan has been. And we want physicians to be supported in the work they do and be able to do the work that they do. So a thing called physician wellness is very important to us,” said Konstantynowicz.
Konstantynowicz pointed out that the SMA is very respectful of the physicians in the province.
“They do their best for the people that they look after and they only want for the people of Saskatchewan to be healthy and well. But we all work under certain rules and regulations, and we have to find that balance between how hard do we work and what are we able to offer.”
She also noted that so far there were no unusual or worrisome concerns coming up during their tour.
After they go trough all 11 meetings, the SMA will go back, review the conversations they had with the colleagues and take a look to see if there is a common thread. Their task is to come up with some strategies to advance with the issue forward for the good of the people of Saskatchewan and for the good of the profession as well.
Sometimes the SMA itself can take some steps to help address the issue.
“Twice a year we have what’s called a representative assembly. That’s when representatives from Estevan physician group and all across the province meet. Every physician who is free to attend is free to attend… Often we’ll debate or discuss the concerns that have come up, and we bring a force of resolution. And the resolution then sometimes goes to Ministry (of Health), or (Saskatchewan) Health Authority, or to the greater public at launch,” said Konstantynowicz.
The tour will come to an end in the middle of October with a meeting in La Ronge.
