Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • Classified ads
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • Classified ads
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
News

Mediocrity has become the norm, Turnbull asserts in valedictory address

Roger Collier
CMAJ September 20, 2011 183 (13) E995-E996; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-3982
Roger Collier
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Illnesses prolonged because of unaffordable medications. Operations cancelled because of hospital overcapacity. Debilitating pain because of delayed knee joint replacements. Millions of Canadians without family doctors. This is Canada’s health care system. And it’s a system Canadians can no longer take pride in, says outgoing Canadian Medical Association President Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull.

“We have seen a slow but steady decline in what we would all now agree is a deeply troubled health care system,” Turnbull told delegates at the CMA’s 144th annual general meeting in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, during his valedictory speech on Aug. 23. “To be clear, this pillar of Canadian society is eroding.”

And it’s only getting worse, said Turnbull, noting that Canada’s health care system continues to fall down the ranks internationally in areas such as value for money spent and effectiveness. Turning things around, Turnbull suggested, will require tackling social inequalities, shifting focus from acute care to chronic illnesses and improving leadership in the medical profession.

Over the past year, Turnbull has travelled extensively across the country, and he noted that patients and physicians alike are unhappy with the health care system. Many patients expressed concerns about a lack of timely access to effective care, are confused by a cumbersome system that supports some services but not others, and are angry that their concerns go unheard and their needs unmet.

Physicians, meanwhile, are frustrated by a lack of vision in their profession, said Turnbull. They fear that many doctors have become apathetic or only support causes that line their pocketbooks.

Mediocrity has become the accepted norm, said Turnbull, and health care transformation is considered a mountain too big to climb. “Like you, like patients and other providers, I have been struck by this lack of leadership, coordinated management, accountability and responsibility, and, yes, we see needless waste. But I honestly believe that change is afoot.”

That change, according to Turnbull, starts with the CMA’s health care transformation initiative, as it contains many important principles, and even more importantly, offers proof that physicians and health care organizations across the nation can reach a consensus on what matters most.

Figure1

Outgoing Canadian Medical Association President Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull delivers his valedictory address to the CMA’s 144th annual general meeting in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, on Aug. 23.

Image courtesy of Roger Collier

One important change that should occur, said Turnbull, is a slowing of the increasing social inequity in Canada, which leads to health inequities and higher costs. A vital step in that direction is the need to offer basic levels of prescription drug coverage to citizens, including the poor, the mentally ill, the elderly, Aboriginal populations and other groups that are often neglected.

The current “mish-mash” of public and private financing for medication is unacceptable, said Turnbull. “Creating a national drug strategy or pharmacare plan and a similar vision for long-term care are the two key features to establishing the next generation of medicare.”

The health care system must also shift from an “acute care paradigm” to a model focused on treating the chronically ill, Turnbull added. This will require new management systems, partnerships, accountability structures and a team-based, patient-centred approach to meeting health needs in the home.

But substantial change will never occur unless physicians take the lead, Turnbull said. Doctors are the stewards of the health care system, not governments, he argued. “In my view, they can only follow. It is our role to create the consensus, the partnerships, the circumstances to allow them to move forward and bring change to the struggling health care system.”

As to his thoughts on his tenure at the helm of CMA, Turnbull said in an earlier interview that the end of his term left him with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it provided him with an incredible opportunity to speak to many people on topics he is passionate about. “I was able to speak about poverty and inequalities, and I heard from people who were really engaged,” he says.

But the downside of being the voice of a nation’s medical profession is that you rarely get a chance to rest that voice. The past year was busier than he thought it would be, full of meetings and forums and media interviews and policy reviews and other matters that required his attention at a moment’s notice. Even many weekends were devoted to CMA work. “It’s like being on call,” says Turnbull. “You have to be available at all times.”

Of course, Turnbull still plans to keep busy in the upcoming year. In addition to his regular work at The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario and Ottawa Inner City Health, he will be part of a steering committee on a new national strategy for patient-oriented research. In the fall, he will return to Bangladesh to make sure things are running well at a hospital and orphanage in a village he often visits. He will also be working as a medical adviser to the Canadian government on health services delivery in federal prisons. “That will replace my CMA work, figuring out how to deliver effective health care for national inmates,” says Turnbull. “Those are my kind of people.”

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 183 (13)
CMAJ
Vol. 183, Issue 13
20 Sep 2011
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Mediocrity has become the norm, Turnbull asserts in valedictory address
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Mediocrity has become the norm, Turnbull asserts in valedictory address
Roger Collier
CMAJ Sep 2011, 183 (13) E995-E996; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3982

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Mediocrity has become the norm, Turnbull asserts in valedictory address
Roger Collier
CMAJ Sep 2011, 183 (13) E995-E996; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3982
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Feds update immunization advice with Moderna vaccine approval
  • Canada will have three-digit suicide prevention hotline by 2023
  • Trudeau promises to boost federal health transfers when the pandemic is over
Show more News

Similar Articles

Collections

  • Topics
    • Health policy
    • Canadian government

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions

Copyright 2021, Joule Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

Powered by HighWire