Dear Members,
Another week, more misinformation to correct
Here is AMA Fact Checkup – Issue 2. In this issue, we check and correct government on statements they have made, such as:
- Chartered surgical facilities help solve the shortage of hospital staff.
- Few physicians work in interdisciplinary teams.
- Q3 registration numbers demonstrate that efforts to attract and retain physicians are paying off.
- Government spent millions on information systems for 18 physicians in Blended Capitation Model.
- The discussions about the Physician Comprehensive Care Model are outside of the AMA Agreement.
- Government always intended to implement PCCM in April 2025.
- All parties that can offer immunizations (for flu, COVID, RSV) will be fully equipped by the end of the week.
We will keep monitoring, checking and reporting.
Ad campaign and materials for physicians
Our Informed Reform advertising campaign is running across the province on billboards, digital ads and recently added video ads. I’ll share some of these and some statistics with you when we are a little deeper into the campaign. In the meantime, we’ll keep new activity coming.
You can participate right now to support our efforts and tell government to listen to physicians. We want informed reform and that includes implementing the Physician Comprehensive Care Model and acting on the Acute Care Stabilization Proposal!
- Download Informed Reform office posters:
- 11”X17”
- 11”X17” rural posters (with advice from the Section of Rural Medicine).
- Respond to this President's Letter to:
- Order 11”X17” regular or rural posters to be mailed to your clinic.
- Order 33” X 51” regular or rural posters. (we will provide your designated local printer with the file).
- Find and use social media sharing images at the bottom of the Informed Reform campaign homepage.
Would you find pocket cards useful?
It’s not practical for all members to use posters. Members of the Section of Emergency Medicine are distributing pocket-friendly cards to patients who have suffered through long wait times in the emergency department (ED). A QR code directs people to a focused survey on our PatientsFirst.ca site that compiles how many hours patients have waited in the ED, their location and how it has impacted them. This is part of our drive to bring current information and evidence to our advocacy efforts and the meaningful conversations we hope our campaign will achieve. The AMA will report publicly on these numbers.
We will be launching a broader patient survey in the very near future to capture details about what patients are experiencing in the system. We will make pocket cards available for this survey as well. We’ll let members know when the survey is ready, but in the meantime, if you are interested in having some of these cards sent to you when they’re ready, please let me know by replying to this President’s Letter.
You’ll hear from me again soon. Thanks for reading and for taking action to support the Association.
Sincerely,
Shelley Duggan, MD, FRCPC
President, Alberta Medical Association