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Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine
CJRM Summer 2000 / été 2000

President's message: Sustainability

David P. O'Neil, MD

CJRM 2000;5(3):127.

Last year was a little difficult for the SRPC (Society of Rural Physicians of Canada), but we have come through it. By fall we were in a fairly tight financial situation and had to curtail some of our activities to remain solvent. We have had to delay plans to hire an executive director. We continue our extensive lobbying efforts for a National Rural Health Strategy, although there was no specific support for the idea in the February budget.

Membership growth has been strong. We now find ourselves with a comfortable (but unimpressive) bank balance. The organization seems to run better on the enthusiasm of its members than it does on money anyway.

The Federal government is putting money into rural health. There is now the prospect that some of the projects that were stalled for lack of resources may receive some government support.

We will be seeking funding for the following.

  • National Rural Medical Forum: a study of rural access to surgical services, in cooperation with the Canadian Association of General Surgeons and the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC)
  • Joint position paper on rural anesthesia, in cooperation with the CFPC and the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society
  • Spousal support program
  • Study and consensus conference on rural blood banking, in cooperation with the Canadian Blood Services
  • Consensus conference on maintenance of competence for GP anesthetists
  • Maintenance of competence program for GP anesthesia
  • Development of a CME/Locum program, in cooperation with Dalhousie University.

Our research committee has become active and will provide the SRPC with input to the many rural research project proposals that are anticipated through the new Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Our emergency committee will examine the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians triage guidelines and develop a rural-friendly approach to them.

With all this activity and development we cannot lose sight of our mission of achieving sustainable working conditions for rural physicians and equitable health care for rural Canadians. To do so, the SRPC must be sustainable too. We must live within our means. The executive needs adequate administrative support, and our em-ployees need to be compensated competitively. We are a long way from that, but we are getting there.

Correspondence to: Dr. David O'Neil, c/o SRPC, Box 893, Shawville QC J0X 2Y0

© 2000 Society of Rural Physicians of Canada