On-Boarding Page
Who are we/what is this group?
We are family physicians, all practicing in Alberta
This group was started in mid-September after a call-out for interest in the “Alberta Physicians for Comprehensive Care” facebook group September 6th.
Over the next 4-6 weeks the group grew, slowly at first, but with greater acceleration until 60+ members in the last week of October (the time this On-boarding page is written)
At the time of this writing, physicians in this group are from as diverse locales as Grand Prairie and Westlock to Okotoks and Blairmore, Medicine Hat to Banff and Hinton, with large pockets in Sherwood Park and Medicine Hat. Of course, the metropolitan centers of Calgary and Edmonton are well represented. However, without knowing the true make up of the group, I think its safe to state that rural locations are better represented by numbers than what one would expect from overall distribution of actual family doctors. Update: the makeup of this group on Nov01’23 was 38% Calgary/Edmonton, 38% Mid-Cities, 24% Rural
Who we are, who we are not: Our goals are admittedly physician-focused. This is by design. There are many agencies who are already patient-oriented. Those groups are needed and applauded. Without those agencies, patients would be even more vulnerable within a deteriorating healthcare system. We do not believe those groups to be misguided. We, however, are filling the void in that no agency is deliberately, nor effectively, representing they labour-interests of family physicians.
First attempt at an Mission Statement (always up for debate)
Family doctors are trained in the skillful application of healthcare for their patients and communities. They are also uniquely positioned and experienced in managing teams in providing the wider spectrum of evidence-based health.
To properly execute both the practice of medicine, and the management of teams, family physicians require robust autonomy, reliable and adequate funding, a stable and effective healthcare framework and the independence necessary to adapt to the evolving needs of their communities. To realize the best utility of these assets and elements, family doctors must be involved in development, maintenance and implementation of policy affecting such.
No other medical profession possesses this balance of assets. No other medical profession can fill the largest gaps present in our current system. When positioned properly, family medicine saves lives and saves tax dollars. Further, family doctors are present, on location, now.
Alberta Family Doctors’ Labour is a collective of family doctors who aim to organize and mobilize the family physician body of Alberta to highlight these concepts, educate the public regarding such, and persuade the government to take meaningful and immediate action to ensure continued viability of family medicine. When family doctors thrive, so do Albertans.
AFDL: Working with government to ensure prosperous family medicine, for family doctors and for Albertans.
Goals (up for group debate)
Improved direct remuneration of our “paid work” (reflecting both time spent, and complexity of care)
Conversion of our “unpaid work” into paid work
Improved mitigation of factors that lead to burn out
Incentive structures to retain current docs, and attract new docs
Maintenance and enhancement of family physician autonomy in operating our independent practices, and as the true/skilled/experienced leaders of the “medical team”/patient medical home.
Ensure comprehensive involvement of family doctors in the governance and decision-making of the primary care system.
Ensure appropriate transference of public expenditure through autonomous independent community medical home leaders (family doctors) to promote the responsive development of medical teams.
Establishment of “Board of Administrative Consultation”, where family physicians (and others) may judge, alter and approve acceptable administrative burden imposed by outside agencies.
Formal and robust acknowledgement that, through enhancement of family doctors as the central primary care specialists/medical team leaders, we directly save Albertans tax dollars while improving healthcare access.
Acknowledgement and commitment of our representative body to enhancing, and making more durable, our actual representation within their structure
Vision Statement
In the evolving landscape of healthcare, we envision Alberta Family Physicians standing at the forefront, championed by a system that recognizes and fairly compensates the full spectrum of our roles - from clinical interactions to the vital after-hours paperwork and on-call support. We advocate for a unified voice, led with autonomy and integrity, ensuring that every decision is made in the best interests of the patient. Our collective aspiration is not just about remuneration but about restoring the essence of family practice: fostering deep-rooted patient relationships, ensuring a balanced work-life dynamic, and continuously evolving in our medical knowledge and skills. Through proactive engagement, like liaising with MLAs and asserting our leadership, we aim to co-create a future where the value of a Family Physician is unequivocally understood and revered, leading to a sustainable and thriving healthcare system for all Albertans.
This all seems to flirt heavily with privileged, privatized healthcare, to the exclusion of EDI concepts. Help me understand how this group intends to reconcile physician-labour representation with public health meant to lift all patients up, especially those less fortunate.
What other activities are we considering?
A building of our cohesion and recognition of our presence by the public, the government/ministry, our formal representatives, and the media
Letters to the MOH, to MLAs, to the media, to the AMA. These letters will become both more strategically focused, and with larger influence as we grow in size, and learn the ropes
Possible public events, rallies etc, where strategically advantageous to do so (we aren’t going to have rallies purely because “rallies are fun”, because at -40C they are not fun. They can also demonstrate your weakness. I have witnessed a poorly attended rally kill a whole movement)
Shows of solidarity (lapel pins) to peak colleague curiosity
Exploration of “withholding of labour”. We will not jump to this lightly. You cannot/should not coerce someone into job action. But, when/if this happens, people will believe that job action is safer/better than no job action. The trick is to try our best to all get to that point all at the same time, and be organized/mobilized enough to ensure such action has impact. If you don’t do the ground-work ahead of time, your desperate attempt at job action will still be futile. Thus think of it like this: we are not promoting job action as a desired tactic, we are preparing such that job action could be an effective tactic if needed.
Production of clinic bills, showing the “full value” of services provided, the amount remunerated by govt, and the difference that is subsidized by doctors directly
Create graphics for participating clinics to display, showing typical breakdown of where the value/cost of family physician remuneration goes to
Public portion of our website (not yet implemented)
patient/physician impact statements, for both physician and patient (public) participation
linked to a twitter account to amplify
Regional listing of clinic wait times to enhance the public awareness of impact of deteriorating family medicine