Dear Members:
The AMA has been consulting with public health leaders with respect to holding the Representative Forum in person this weekend during the current COVID 19 pandemic. (Just this morning, the World Health Organization officially announced that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.)
As of today, we believe there is too much risk in bringing together this many physicians in person. As you know, the risks include inadvertent spread of the virus and/or the possibility of quarantine measures for this large number of physicians. This would impact the delivery of health care for Albertans, therefore, the March 13-14 RF meeting has been cancelled.
There was a lot of anticipation around this particular RF meeting. Important conversations still need to occur with the leadership of the profession and we will work toward a virtual RF meeting in the near future.
The Board of Directors will have a teleconference this evening to learn what transpired with government via the small working group that has been meeting this week. I will update you as soon as I can on that front.
As for the COVID-19 pandemic, I know physicians will do what we need to do to support our patients, in collaboration with both Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services. I am working to bring you more information from public health on this evolving crisis. Please take care of yourselves – and let's also take care of each other. This is a time to focus on how we can best help our fellow Albertans.
In your service,
Christine P. Molnar, MD, FRCPC
President, Alberta Medical Association