JTF), Comprised of Family Physicians, Specialists, and AMA Support Staff, Represents a Unified Voice That Supports and Enables Grassroots Physician Advocacy Efforts

February 11, 2021

Welcome to the most recent issue of the Joint Task Force Update. The AMA Joint Task Force (JTF), comprised of family physicians, specialists, and AMA support staff, represents a unified voice that supports and enables grassroots physician advocacy efforts. The JTF has put together this list of events, resources and news items that may be of interest to physicians.

Our next podcast episode is up! The second episode of the JTF podcast, Alberta, This is Going to Hurt, explores the downstream impacts of COVID on our health care system and what this means for Albertans. Hosted by Dr. Samantha Myhr, Dr. Jon Hilner and Dr. Howard Evans, this episode welcomes Dr. Richard Rabeeh, a pediatric psychiatrist, who discusses the impact COVID has had on the mental health of Alberta’s children.

You can listen to it here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Tell us about your practice and any changes you may be making The Joint Task Force worked closely with AMA’s Information Systems Group (ISG) and Public Affairs to create a mechanism to gather information about physicians who are changing their practice and their reasons for doing so. The confidential, voluntary "My Practice Information" feature has been added to the member dashboard and asks about your practice and any changes you might be making, including retirement, closing your practice, reducing or increasing your hours, as well as the reasons for these changes. If you have any questions or comments on the new dashboard feature, please let us know at [email protected].

Week in Review In case you missed it, here’s some of what’s happened over the past couple of weeks:

• The February 10, President’s Letter outlined many of the other, more “usual” issues the AMA is involved with or providing physician input on, including commenting on Whistleblower Protection legislation and Continuing Care legislation. • As of Monday, February 8, the province relaxed some COVID restrictions regarding in- person dining in restaurants, children’s sports and one-on-one fitness training. Many health experts expressed concern about the timing of these loosened restrictions, as new cases of COVID variants continue to rise and Ontario reported Canada’s first case of the variant first detected in Brazil. • CBC News reported that millions of the rapid COVID-19 tests delivered to provincial governments were never used. To date, Alberta has used only 0.89 per cent of the 1.9 million rapid COVID-19 tests it received by the federal government. • Health Canada has approved changing the label on Pfizer BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to indicate that each vial contains six doses when used with special syringes that make it possible to extract all of the vaccine. • The February 7, President’s Letter discussed the partnership between the AMA and Alberta Health that aims to advance COVID-19 vaccinations of Albertans. The letter also outlined the important role physicians play in battling misinformation and announced the launch of the “Be a Vaccine Positive Clinic” toolkit, which was created to help physicians talk with their patients about the COVID vaccination. • Health Canada is in the final stages of reviewing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and is currently working with the company to determine what information will be included on the label. Recently, concerns have been raised about the efficacy of the vaccine with certain new variants and in people aged 65 and older. • A new study has shed light on how COVID was spread at a curling bonspiel held last March that was attended by doctors from across Western Canada. The bonspiel is considered one of Alberta’s first superspreader events • The pastor of a church in Parkland County has been charged with contravening the Public Health Act, after police found the church continued to hold in-person services that defied physical distancing requirements. • Two members of Premier Jason Kenney’s caucus have joined a national coalition opposing public health restrictions. Drew Barnes, MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat, and Angela Pitt, MLA for Airdrie and the Deputy Speaker of the House and Chair of Committees, have both signed on to the End the Lockdowns national caucus, which is part of a group called Liberty Coalition of Canada. • On Tuesday, January 9, Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced that Alberta would be expanding the province’s COVID-19 rapid testing program to include asymptomatic continuing care staff as well as staff at Suncor sites in Fort McMurry and Fort McKay. • Beginning next week, anyone passing through Canada’s land borders will be required to show a negative COVID-19 test. Travellers arriving in Canada by air have been expected to show a negative PCR-based COVID-19 test since early January. • The province reported 339 new COVID cases on Wednesday, February 10 and 6 additional deaths, bringing the total number of Albertans lost to the pandemic to 1728. • Currently, there are 421 patients in hospital and 77 people in ICU across the province. • To date, Alberta has confirmed 120 total cases of the two variant strains first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa. The 16 new variant strains identified on Wednesday, February 10, included two cases linked to in-school transmission. • Since August 30, 1191 schools across the province have reported cases of COVID-19, with 324 schools reporting cases in the past two weeks. A total of 12 schools have been closed due to COVID outbreaks since schools returned to in-person learning on January 11. The province’s online map helps parents track outbreaks. • Fort McMurray’s City Council has decided to defy AHS and stop sending EMS calls to the recently centralized provincial dispatch system, citing an “obvious degradation in services” in more than 50 incidents. Tany Yao, the UCP MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo has indicated that he is supportive of council’s decision but has concerns about possible legal repercussions. • A Calgary-based harm reduction society has submitted an application to the City of Lethbridge to operate a centre that will provide confidential support services to people at risk for HIV and Hepatitis C, and needle distribution. The UCP government closed Lethbridge’s only supervised consumption site in August 2020. • A new University of Alberta research study suggests that traumatic or stressful events during early childhood can change areas of the brain that are responsible for emotional responses and that those changes can be detected decades later.

Advocacy in action

Advocacy resources for physicians With the guidance of physician working groups and AMA Health Economics, the JTF has created a number of resources and tools designed to assist you with your own advocacy efforts. These resources are available for download on the advocacy pages of the AMA website.

If there are specific materials you feel would help you raise your voice and inform Albertans about what is at stake, please let us know and we will help you create something that will meet your needs.

Meetings with MLAs Many physicians have been meeting with their MLAs and, in some cases, government ministers, to discuss the concerns they have about the impacts of recent government changes. If you are part of a group or community of physicians that are interested in undertaking advocacy activities, please reach out to the JTF support team for assistance at [email protected]. We’d be happy to help!

The Putting Patients First® campaign has resulted in 38,200 letters being sent to MLAs and more than 19,700 being sent directly to Premier Kenney.

The AMA is continuing to offer media relations and social media training sessions for members.

Share your story The Joint Task Force is continuing to gather stories from physicians who have made the difficult decision to change their practice or even leave the province. Please consider sharing your story with us at [email protected], if you are in this situation. Our team would appreciate being able to capture your thoughts and concerns, so that we can share your experience with Albertans who may not realize what is at stake for our province.

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