Chair's Report - Winter 2022

Dear Colleagues,

The first few months since I took over as Chair have been full of activity, with momentum building in a few different areas. I am excited to share what we have planned, so please read on. The report is divided into four key strategic areas (Governance, Member Services, Patient Care and Advocacy & Stakeholder Engagement) to help keep us targeted in our efforts and representation.

Before I get into that, I want to take this opportunity to emphasize that we are acutely aware of the economic and moral impact the pandemic continues to have on our members. I can assure you that the Section Executive continues to do our best to act as your voice and advocate on your behalf.  

Our mission continues to be to advocate for and represent your best interests and to strengthen our leadership role within the health system. Our vision is for anesthesiologists to be leading partners, delivering the highest standards of innovative, safe, and sustainable patient care.

Governance, Tariff and Compensation
Sound governance and processes form the foundation of how effectively we can represent you. We aim to put forward strong submissions to OMA negotiations and the Medical Services Payment (MSPC) on your behalf to ensure you are appropriately valued for the care you deliver.

We welcome Dr. Vatsal Trivedi who has stepped up to serve as the incoming Vice-Chair of the Section.  We also congratulate Dr. Arjun Krishna who continues as Secretary, Dr. Emily Chan who has moved from Member-at-Large to Treasurer and Dr. Eric Goldszmidt who continues as Tariff Chair.

As you may recall, the MSPC asked each Section to submit proposals to the OMA-MSPC for consideration and refinement. These proposals would then be ready for the bilateral fee setting/allocation process once a Physician Services Agreement is reached. We have submitted several innovative proposals which are currently being considered by the MSPC. We have also reviewed submissions made by other Sections that overlap with ours and have proactively moved to intervene on your behalf to limit any potential impact on our funding envelope or harm to our members. Our Section Tariff Chair, Dr. Eric Goldszmidt, and I had an opportunity to meet with the MSPC at the end of January where we were able to address our submission and reinforce our concerns about these other areas. We will continue to make a strong stance to ensure fair process.

The OMA Negotiation Task Force and Ministry continue in the mediation phase of negotiations and several dates have been added after recent significant progress in key areas. A communications blackout, initiated at the end of December remains in effect. Despite the progress, it is important to remember that until there is agreement on all issues in question, an agreement will not be brought to members for ratification.

In the coming months, the OMA will be moving to the next phase of Governance Transformation which will inform Sections and Districts on their roles within the overall OMA structure. We will provide strong feedback to encourage a more integrated and inclusive framework when it comes to advocacy and decision making.

Member Services
Serving our members is another area of our core work. Highlighting and providing opportunities for growth in education, research, advocacy, and advancement will help elevate our specialty.

Our signature event, The Annual Ontario Anesthesia Meeting and Conference weekend is scheduled for September 15th to 18th, 2022 at The Westin Harbour Castle and we are preparing for an in-person meeting. We aim to deliver a high-quality educational program. We are also looking at venues for a safe in-person social event for having some long overdue fun and networking opportunities!

I would like to thank all of you who have signed up for the OMA Health-Care Advocate program. Learning advocacy skills helps not only with political engagement, but how to advocate within your department, your hospital and with other stakeholders. I truly believe learning and exercising advocacy skills has never been more important for anesthesiologists. The seminars, tools and opportunities will help our members collectively raise the profile of our profession across the health system. If you are interested, you can learn more and sign up to become an OMA Health-Care Advocate.

We have a long-term goal to build leadership capacity among anesthesiologists to ensure our voice is represented and to ensure the delivery of the best patient care possible. Our Leadership Working Group had its initial meeting in January and we are looking forward to developing this important initiative. 

In today’s age, people seek information from the internet. Over the next several months we will be looking at refreshing our Ontario Anesthesia website with both updated content and to make it more informative for both members and stakeholders. If anyone is keen on being involved in this time limited project or has feedback on our website, please reach out to us at info@ontariosanesthesiologists.ca.

Thank you for investing in yourself, your career and your profession by paying your optional Ontario’s Anesthesiologists Section membership dues for 2022. We sincerely appreciate your support to help us effectively represent and advocate for you.

Patient Care
In January we had an incredibly productive first meeting of the Environmental Sustainability Working Group. Amongst anesthesiologists, there is strong motivation to adopt safer and environmentally sustainable practices. There have been several successes across the province which we will attempt to help scale to maximize the environmental benefit.

We continue to promote the use of our SolvingPain and Choosing Wisely initiatives. Over the next five months, we will be targeting key stakeholders to secure funding to advance the SolvingPain initiative.

One of the biggest challenges that may face us over the next five years is a shortage of anesthesiologists.  One quarter of our workforce in Ontario is over the age of 55. Combine this with burnout and work-life balance decisions, we need to be proactive and involved in helping shape the future in this area. The Anesthesia Human Resources Working Group is getting underway and we will be setting up meetings to establish connections to stay on top of this important issue and to ensure that a province-wide perspective is kept in mind. As a Section, we will continue to promote physician-led models of anesthesia care and a physician-led anesthesia care team.

Advocacy and Stakeholder Management
If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, you will have noticed a purposeful increase in activity, presence and stakeholder engagement. As we build content in the key areas we want to engage in, we will move to set up meetings with government, political candidates, and other stakeholders to ensure our perspective on patient care is heard and represented.

In the coming months, we will be encouraging members to join the OMA Health-Care Advocate group and we will be exploring Anesthesia-specific opportunities for our members to learn and exercise skills acquired.

I will end by reinforcing my commitment to representing you by elevating our voice and promoting our interests. Please reach out any time with your thoughts and ideas. We value your feedback and suggestions.

Sincerely,

Dr. Rohit Kumar
Chair, Ontario's Anesthesiologists
A Section of the Ontario Medical Association