This spring promises to be full of excitement and opportunity. From leadership to advocacy and celebration, I would like to draw your attention to three ways you can get involved this season.
Spring Call for Nominations
The ACFP is seeking nominations for volunteers for various operational committees. If you are interested in getting more involved with the ACFP, consider joining us as we strive to move forward with leadership and advocacy for our members and the public we serve. If interested, email your application to governance@acfp.ca with a short letter of interest (250 words max) and a summary of your experience or a copy of your CV by Friday, May 12, 2023.
World Family Doctor Day
World Family Doctor Day (WFDD) was first declared by WONCA (World Organization of Family Doctors) over 10 years ago; it annually commemorates and acknowledges the outstanding contributions of family doctors in health care systems around the world. This year’s theme is “Family Doctors: The heart of health care”.
This theme captures the essence of family physicians who use their unique and dynamic understanding of human development and social determinants of health to develop a comprehensive approach to managing disease and illness in patients and their families. Having a family doctor is the best way to ensure access to continuous and comprehensive primary care. Without family doctors, the job of all other health care providers becomes more difficult.
The ACFP will be celebrating WFDD in a number of ways this year and will keep you informed on opportunities to engage. We are striving to advocate for family doctors and create positive changes in the primary health care system, and we invite you to take part by celebrating family medicine with us on May 19 for WFDD.
Speaking Up
We should continue to emphasize that, as the first point of contact for patients in health care, family physicians act as the central hub for managing disease and illness in patients and their families. The key to building a strong health care system is providing high quality primary care and placing family physicians at the core of delivering primary care. In fact, optimal primary care improves overall population health and lowers health care costs.
In our ongoing engagement with the government, the ACFP has established the following key messages:
- Funding the expansion of family medicine teams at the point of care
- Building community-based health authorities with engaged leadership, patient-based funding, and accountability
- Ensure the necessary access to data to assist in clinical care and quality improvement
For an interactive way to learn about advocacy, register for next Thursday evening’s ACFP Webinar on Alberta’s Political Landscape. After the session, sign in to ACFP Networks for additional advocacy tools.
We thank you for your engagement and membership,
Sincerely,
Noel DaCunha, MBBS, CCFP
President
Alberta College of Family Physicians
