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Spring 2006 |
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H e a l t h P o l i c y
New CMA forum
seeks input from province’s MDs
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Submitted Photo |
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The CMA is trying to
deepen the pool of physicians providing it with input and advice by
launching an electronic advisory panel that will be consulted when major
policy issues arise.
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Submitted Article |
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The CMA is trying to deepen the pool
of physicians providing it with input and advice by launching an
electronic advisory panel that will be consulted when major policy
issues arise.
The initiative, a first for the CMA, is an
offshoot from a letter President Ruth Collins-Nakai sent to all members
last October seeking input on the relationship between public and
private medicine in Canada. General Council, the governing body,
directed the CMA to develop a consultation paper and policy principles
on the subject during its annual meeting last August.
Dr. Collins-Nakai said her October letter
was a result of those instructions, and was an attempt to “take the
profession’s pulse” before the paper was written. The heavy response —
2,800 replies from physicians across Canada — convinced the CMA to try
and make such member consultation an ongoing process.
The initial result is a list of 163
physicians who have volunteered to participate in a physicians’ panel
that will provide electronic feedback on a variety of policy issues
facing the CMA and the medical profession.
“We already receive regular feedback from
out committees and councils and from the Board of Directors and General
Council, but this is an attempt to seek input at the grassroots level,”
said Dr. Collins-Nakai, who describes the new forum as “an electronic
sounding board.”
She said the CMA hopes to increase the
number of forum participants to around 400 members by year’s end, but
said numbers are only part of the equation. “We hope to strike a balance
in areas such as regional representation and type of specialty, so the
more participants, the better,” she said.
She is also hopeful that more doctors from
Newfoundland and Labrador and the other Atlantic provinces will sign up,
because these areas are currently under-represented on the panel.
Physicians interested in participating can
receive more information by sending an email to
yourvoice@cma.ca.
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