What’s It Like to be OMA President?

Like all the best things in life, being President comes with maximal effort, pleasure and sacrifice.

You work more than expected, have more fun than should be allowed, and give up what no sane person would ever choose to give.

Many of you have asked what life is like as President; what skills and experience you might need.

I share the following with sheepish vulnerability. I see best what’s needed most by what I have the least. I offer what I think you need, what I found useful, and what I wish I had a little more. Continue reading “What’s It Like to be OMA President?”

Medicare Provocateurs

Crises do not just happen. Most times, someone causes the crisis.

A patient spends thirteen days in a hospital bathroom.

A man has his heart surgery cancelled four times.

A 15 year old hockey player, crippled in pain, waits ten months for hip surgery. 

An 18 year old dies after waiting months for a hospital bed. 

Someone cut hospital beds from 33, 400 down to 18, 500 between 1992 – 2017.  Ontario grew by 36% over the same period.

Someone keeps operating rooms closed, while patients in Strathroy wait an average of 671 days for knee replacement.  Someone makes patients wait, while the surgeons who replace knees go unemployed.

Of course, it is never someone. A mat of political webbing hides those responsible.

Players vs Being Played

Canadian Medicare copied the 1940s British National Health Service (NHS). After WWII, England wanted to extend its victory to social issues, so Aneurin Bevan, Labour Party leader, launched a campaign to create state medicine.

The British Medical Association resisted. It didn’t want bureaucrats controlling medicine.

Opposition threatened to ruin Bevan‘s plan. So he did what so many politicians do to get their way. He said, “I stuffed their mouths with gold.“

Note: This was not about negotiations of fees for services. It was about control, not funding. Bevan simply poured money into his plan making it irresistible to anyone who disagreed.  Continue reading “Medicare Provocateurs”

Concentration of Power – Are Medical Regulators Autocratic?

Many docs say they’d rather be sued than face a college complaint; at least they could defend themselves.

Faced with reprimand by the College, lawyers advise doctors to bow their heads and accept punishment.

If docs refuse, a mark will be put in their file. Things will go worse next time.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) reports that several thousand doctors help out doing peer reviews of other doctors. This implies, as the College presents it, that many docs must love the College.

But maybe docs help out because they want peer review to be educational, not punitive? Maybe it has nothing to do with loving the College?

The CPSO also notes that most complaints are not serious. Despite the ulcers and lost sleep caused by a complaint, the majority resolve without event.

Furthermore, the CPSO says it is bound by draconian legislation and driven by activist media outlets. It’s not their fault.

Even so, most doctors cower in fear of the CPSO. Six doctors commit suicide each year in Canada while under investigation by their regulator, with no prior history of mental illness.

In my last blog, Is Self-Regulation Dead?, some readers asked for more about the concentration of power.

If there is no “self” in self-regulation, then all that’s left is an autocratic body with power to create laws, enforce laws and punish lawbreakers. Continue reading “Concentration of Power – Are Medical Regulators Autocratic?”