News Releases
Find details and up to date news and information provided by the Society or Rural Physicians of Canada.
Emergency Departments may not be available when you need them in rural Canada
October 11, 2022
All across Canada, doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare providers are working hard to keep hospitals, and emergency departments open. This summer, many emergency departments in small hospitals have had to close. You should be able to access care when and where you need it, especially in an emergency.
Enhancing Canada’s Rural Physician Workforce Through Effective Health Human Resource Planning
Position Statement July 2022
Access to health care in rural communities
Having equitable access to health care is an ongoing challenge for rural, remote, and Indigenous communities in Canada. The physician workforce available to serve these communities is inadequate due to the lack of a comprehensive health human resource (HHR) plan that would enable rural physicians to commit to practising, teaching, and living in these areas over the long term. Health care needs in rural areas go beyond comprehensive primary care. Recent Canadian Medical Protective Association data show that between 20% and 30% of family doctors who identify as rural family physicians/general practitioners include a broader range of services in their scope of work than non‐rural physicians.i Rural generalist physicians provide emergency care and hospital in‐patient care as part of their core services, and they participate in networks of care that deliver anesthesia, obstetrical, surgical, palliative, population health, and home care services. These components must be part of an HHR plan for rural populations. However, while many programs have been implemented to recruit and support rural physicians, barriers1 still exist that hinder their ability to expand rural generalist care in Canada.2ii
Read the full Statement: Enhancing Canada’s Rural Physician Workforce Through Effective Health Human Resource Planning.
Call to action for health care system improvements in support of comprehensive primary health care.
July 2022
Today we are issuing an urgent call to action for health care system improvements in support of comprehensive primary health care.
There is a crisis in family medicine and in the delivery of comprehensive primary care which has left over 4.6M Canadians without a family doctor, and with many people unable to access timely care.
Read the full Statement: Call to Action Comprehensive Primary Health Care.
The joint statement has also been posted on the CMF website and the links are provided below:
English - link
French – link
SRPC Statement on the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s Outcomes of Training Report
June 29, 2022
As identified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (SRPC) recognizes the importance of training family physicians who practice comprehensive, socially accountable medicine to meet the needs of the peoples of this land. Canada’s rural and remote physicians are known for their generalist skills and already embody many of the key attributes that the CFPC hopes to instill in all of its residency graduates.
To accomplish this, the CFPC is proposing post-graduate family medicine education reform to meet the Residency Training Profile (RTP), developed through work that members of the SRPC participated in. The Outcomes of Training Project (OTP) includes a recommendation to increase the duration of family medicine training to three years from two years to meet the curriculum goals of the RTP. The SRPC is committed to collaborating with the CFPC and its OTP.
We have heard the concerns of members with respect to these changes. We too share concerns, however we also see opportunities. As an organization whose mandate is to champion rural generalist medical care, we plan to use our expertise to enhance rural medical education, developing more robust, resilient, and broadly-skilled teams of practice for our communities.
Read the full Statement: SRPC Statement on the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s Outcomes of Training Report
Canada’s rural physicians unanimously endorse motion asking feds to redirect fuel subsidies to support climate crisis adaptation.
April 22, 2022
During the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada’s (SRPC) annual Rural & Remote Medicine Conference in Ottawa April 21‐23, 2022 the physicians embraced Earth Day with a spectacular plenary session by Dr. Courtney Howard, Past‐President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE). The session, “A Healthy Response to Climate Change”, spurred the 400 rural physicians and medical learners to take action against what the Lancet has called “the worst global risk to health”.
Read the full Statement: Canada’s rural physicians unanimously endorse motion asking feds to redirect fuel subsidies to support climate crisis adaptation.
Position Statement: “Research and reconciliation with Indigenous People in rural health journals.” Published simultaneously in the Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, the Australian Journal of Rural Health and Rural and Remote Health, January 2022.
January 19, 2022Indigenous Peoples' cultural knowledge should be treated with respect, regardful of the diversity of their/our Nations and cultural strengths. However, rural health research publishing is guilty of silencing Indigenous Peoples through discursive practices such as author credentials. Therefore, we - a collaboration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars - declare, 'nothing about Indigenous Peoples, without Indigenous Peoples.
Read the full statement: “Research and reconciliation with Indigenous People in rural health journals.”
Joint statement from the Canadian Medical Forum on bullying, attacks, and violence against health workers
October 1, 2021
The Canadian Medical Forum brings together leaders of Canada’s major national medical and health organizations to discuss issues of priority to physicians, their patients, health care workers and the Canadian healthcare system.
As such, we condemn the repeated bullying, attacks, and violence directed at health care workers at the protests outside of numerous hospitals, acute care centres, and healthcare providers’ homes. Canadian health care workers are committed to caring for and treating patients, often under tremendous stress and at risk to their own health. They should not be targeted, traumatized, or harassed as they endeavor to save lives and care for the sick and injured.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed thousands of Canadians and has brought our health care system to the edge of collapse. We all play a role in reducing the burden on our health care system and saving lives of our fellow Canadians. Getting vaccinated is the best hope we have to move forward.
Read the full statement: Joint statement from the Canadian Medical Forum on bullying, attacks, and violence against health workers
Truth and Reconciliation StatementSeptember 30, 2021 As members of the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (SRPC) and its Indigenous Committee, we are profoundly saddened by the discovery of the many unmarked graves containing the remains of Indigenous children at the sites of numerous residential schools across the country. We are reminded that we must all listen and acknowledge the truths of our colonial past and present. The SRPC strongly condemns the systemic racism in policy and decision-making that continues today as a direct result of our country’s colonial history. These policies have caused unquantifiable damage to Indigenous Peoples and continues to reverberate in our day-to-day work as rural and remote physicians. The SRPC believes our duty as healthcare providers is to identify legislation and health policies that lead to racially inequitable outcomes and challenge our current and future governments to move ahead on a path to truth and reconciliation. Read the full statement : Truth_and_Reconciliation_Statement_FINAL.pdf |
ELECTION 2021 STATEMENT
September 8, 2021
As
we are weeks away from a federal election, the Society of Rural
Physicians of Canada (SRPC) calls on all politicians to answer rural and
Indigenous populations’ demands to make access to health care a
priority for people living in Canada’s rural and remote communities.
The
COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our fragmented, overburdened health care
system and its inability to adequately address inequities on access to
health care in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities. These
communities face unique challenges that must be managed effectively and
collaboratively.
SRPC CALLS FOR ALL FEDERAL PARTIES TO ADDRESS INEQUITIES TO ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE IN RURAL CANADA
LA SMRC DEMANDE À TOUS LES PARTIS D’ABORDER LES INIQUITÉS D’ACCÈS AUX SOINS DE SANTÉ EN RÉGION RURALE AU CANADA
SRPC ENDORSEMENT: CAEP position statement on violence in the emergency department
September 1, 2021
Workplace violence occurs when a person is physically or verbally abused, threatened, intimidated, harassed or assaulted in her or his employment. In Canada, employees have the right to a safe work environment, and it is the duty of the employer to provide it. Link to web article.
CAEP position statement on violence in the emergency department