I am seeking your support for nomination as the next CMA President-Elect. It is a marvellous opportunity to refocus national issues through the lens of rural medicine. I would bring a mixture of perspectives to the role if successful: that of a smaller province, a rural specialist practice with roots as an International Medical Graduate. These are perspectives seen only infrequently at this level.

We are each all too aware of the problems which beset the delivery of medical and health care, both locally and nationally. In recent years, each group with any interest or mandate in health care has advocated for its own magic bullet. In doing so they have failed to acknowledge the diversity and challenges of delivering care to such a varied population as we have in this country.

That national diversity is mirrored in the composition of the Canadian Medical Association and its members. Within the depth and breadth of knowledge of health care that is unique to this profession lies the potential for developing solutions. These come by taking a balanced approach using our diversity as our strength, from experiences with our patients to our intimate knowledge of the system. For example, solutions to wait times in Montreal, Vancouver or Ottawa, urban access issues, may not be relevant to access issues in Hopedale, Timmins, or even St. John’s.

Unfortunately, politicians, federal in particular, appear now to have given health care a passing check mark and moved on. In some ways this marks the culmination of a process in which the voice of the medical profession has been marginalized both by politicians and health care bureaucrats in general. It should be the role of medical associations, both provincial and national, to remedy this, ultimately bringing about a de-politicization of the entire process of health care delivery. I would pursue this objective vigorously if elected.

The rural lens highlights another of the myths of Canadian health care, namely that it is free: it is not and never has been. We see significant differences between income groups in their ability to access services, avail of these services and, ultimately, in their health outcomes themselves. The lower the family income, the less healthy the family. These inequities are most apparent among the smaller, more rural provinces, and the urban homeless. The clearest example relates to prescription drugs. These, now the mainstay of medical management, lie beyond the reach of the “working poor” who make up fully one-third of my practice. However, Medicare plans cling still to an historical concept of in-patient, illness-focused care as their defining modality. This needs to change. Such a program of patient-centred drug coverage has been a focus of my committee work at CMA and I would wish to see the Association lobby vigorously for such a scheme.

I have spent the last 14 years of my professional life working on behalf of physicians, through both the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association and the CMA. My year as president of the NLMA saw our first job action, yet through unity of voice and action we succeeded in advancing medical care, physician retention and physician well-being. I respectfully ask for the opportunity to advance these aims as your national president.

Sincerely,

Dr. John A. Haggie

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Biography (PDF)

Nexus Winter 2009 Article

For More Information

Lynn Barter
Telephone (709) 726-7424 (306)
Toll Free (800) 563-2003 (306)
E-mail lbarter@nlma.nl.ca