The chief of staff of one of Canada's largest hospitals who treats the homeless under Ottawa's bridges and is an outspoken champion of public health care is riding a wave of endorsements from academic medical elites and student doctors as the next president of the Canadian Medical Association.
In the six-week-long campaign for the post, Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull, one of three candidates, has picked up backing from medical school deans and department heads, the president of Toronto's huge University Health Network, global humanitarian activist James Orbinski, leading researchers and a remarkable number of medical students and residents.
His election would be a marked break from recent CMA presidents who have favoured a larger role for private health care in the Canadian system.
Under the CMA's complex system of voting, which ends Thursday, each province in turn a elects a candidate for the CMA presidency who is then ratified at the association's general meeting in August. This year is Ontario's turn. The ratification by the full association is usually, but not always, automatic.
Dr. Turnbull, chief of staff of The Ottawa Hospital, is running against Dr. Deborah Hellyer, a respirologist, University of Windsor professor and board member of the Ontario and Canadian medical associations, and Dr. John Tracey, a Brampton physician and CMA and OMA board member endorsed by several OMA and CMA past presidents.
All three candidates have spoken out on the financial stresses on the health-care system. Dr. Hellyer has focused on devising new systems to ease the shortage of physicians in Canada as well as the financial debt of medical students and residents. Dr. Tracey has said doctors must work hard to preserve and enhance the publicly funded universal health care system but, he adds, “it would be remiss not to address the fiscal realities our health care system is currently facing – none more so than the recent severe financial recession.”
Dr. Turnbull has pledged unequivocal support for a publicly funded health care system – a position seen as putting him in line with the thinking of most of Ontario's medical interns and residents who also have a vote. A number of medical academics say they've observed an emerging, strong mood of idealism in student doctors.
“When you're in academic medicine, you're constantly in touch with the next generation of physicians,” said Dr. Robert Bell, president and CEO of University Health Network, who supports Dr. Turnbull. “And Turnbull, as you can notice through his support from interns' and residents' associations, is perceived as being in touch with the social conscience of the next generation of docs. That to me is a powerful statement from a guy who is in his mid-50s.”
Dr. Turnbull has developed special care facilities for the homeless in Ottawa, including a “wet shelter” for alcoholics and a palliative hospice. He also does volunteer work in Bangladesh. In addition to his post at Ottawa Hospital, he has headed major departments at the University of Ottawa, has won numerous teaching awards and holds the Order of Canada.
One student who has endorsed him, Dr. Michaela Beder, a resident in psychiatry at University of Toronto, said of him: “Dr. Turnbull is a role model for all residents and medical students. His vision points the way to a compassionate and effective medical practice.”
