Four Important things in this newsletter.
- South Island Specific Town Halls.
In the other Geos’, town halls addressing local issues have been found useful. Our administrative colleagues (Ian Thompson, Ben Williams, Manjeet Mann, Haley Bos and Brian McArdle) have agreed to try them here. With 1,200 docs, plus those in the community, we need to have some structure.
- No longer than 30 minutes.
- Purpose: to inform
- Current status of facilities
- Covid update
- Any changes / redeployments necessary
- Any other info that should be shared
- Friday Mornings at 7:30 am – email info@southislandmsa.ca for dial-in details.
- Physicians and concerns from both RJH and VGH welcome.
- Questions can be submitted through Slido
- We will try to get as many questions answered as we can.
- Email verification.
Email addresses change. Having the correct one is important, especially now. Island Health has one, the MSA also – but they are not always the same. So we are both sending out this newsletter: if you don’t get two copies, one of us doesn’t have your address.
This is important, so if you don’t get two copies, please just hit the button info@southislandmsa.ca . We will add your address. If you don’t want it shared with the Health Authority (it probably should be, but your choice), just let us know by putting “don’t share” or something like that in the subject line.
- Covid-19 Funding work.
Starting 3 weeks ago, we pushed hard for both retroactive and on-going compensation for docs giving up clinical time for COVID-19 preparatory work. There was much sympathy from our administrative colleagues for the idea, and a recognition that both leaders with limited administrative contracts, as well as colleagues without formal contracts were doing a lot of work, often at the expense of their regular work. We are happy to report some success, with the recent letter from Dr. Ben Williams.
This won’t cover everything, but it will be helpful. We have also asked the Doctors of BC to address the issue of those who lost significant income with the mandated service reductions.
In the meantime, as most know, we have been using FEI funds where possible to support planning and engagement activities to keep clinicians and patients safe. Limited by the FEI guidelines and our own budget, we have been trying to make the decisions quickly yet thoughtfully, knowing that it’s always a matter of judgement and other’s decisions may differ from ours.
- Other MSA Advocacy –Not Just Finances.
For the past month, we have been sending a daily summary of information from various sources. With the slowing of the information flow, we’re changing this to the town halls to see if this new format better addresses medical staff needs.
The MSA exists in the Bylaws to raise concerns appropriately either to administration or to HAMAC. Several months ago we brought to HAMAC concerns from one Department whose members felt their issues were not being addressed. This started a change process which will be ongoing. Last week, we helped hospitalists have the opportunity to bring concerns to HAMAC. We also raised the concerns of medical staff about social distancing in some clinical areas.
So, if you have concerns, let us know. That’s our job, to support you in working out problems, and to speak for you if and when necessary. We can’t if we don’t know what your concerns are.
REMEMBER: REPLY to info@SouthIslandmsa.ca if you don’t get two copies.