March 2021

CAPA MEMBERSHIP: SUPPORTING HEALTHCARE CHAMPIONS
March 31st was the official deadline to renew your CAPA membership. For anyone who has not yet renewed for the 2020-2021 membership year, you must renew before the end of the May 31st, 2021 grace period. After this time, you will no longer have access to your member benefits or CPD tracking tool. If you wish to pay by installment payments, contact admin@capa-acam.ca.

ADVOCACY NEWS

Alberta
Due to our ongoing advocacy efforts, we received exciting news from Alberta Health that the Government of Alberta made PAs eligible (subject to specific criteria) for the Critical Worker Benefit. As of March 16, 2021, PAs are an eligible occupation for Health’s Critical Worker Benefit, which is a lump sum payment of $1,200. If you have questions about the Critical Worker Benefit, please contact Marina at mbanister@capa-acam.ca.

In addition, we have also successfully advocated to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta to cut the regulatory college registration and annual fee by 50% of the initially proposed amount and eliminated all fees for 2021. Combined, this results in significant financial savings and benefit for Alberta PAs. Thank you to all of the Alberta PAs who participated in this advocacy work. Special thanks to Kirsten Loumala for her leadership and support.

British Columbia
We are currently reaching out to various aligned health associations to gain their formal support for a letter we are sending the Minister of Health, asking him to regulate PAs in BC. We have received lots of positive responses thus far, highlighting the broad support PAs have from other health professionals in the region.

Manitoba
Board Member, Steven Piotrowski, and CAPA Staff Marina Banister, have been meeting with allied health associations to discuss CAPA priorities. Thus far we have met with Doctors Manitoba, CPSMB, Shared Health Manitoba, and PCAM.

On March 18th, 2021 we learned of a recent Ombudsman decision which stated that PAs and CAs do not meet the qualifications outlined in the Manitoba Highway Traffic Act 157(1). This means that effective immediately PAs and CAs cannot be signatories to the Driver Fitness form used to report medical conditions to MPI. We are investigating this and will be sending a response to the relevant decision-making authority.

New Brunswick
The New Brunswick government’s consultation process seeking input from New Brunswickers on what they want from their health care system has begun. If you or someone you know has a connection in the province, please pass along the dates and times of the virtual townhall meetings. The following key messages can be shared with family and friends to help us communicate the value and importance of PAs in New Brunswick.

Nova Scotia
Stephen McNeil has stepped down as Premier of Nova Scotia and has been succeeded by Iain Rankin. A total of 16 cabinet ministers, including a new Minister of Health, Zachary Churchill have been sworn into office. CAPA has sent letters to Premier Rankin and Minister Churchill congratulating them on their new appointments. The letters also informed them about the pilot project in orthopedic surgery that was implemented with a view to permanently integrate PAs within the province’s health care system and establish regulatory oversight. The recommended next steps outlined in the letter include the regulation of the PA profession in the province, developing a plan to train PAs locally, as well as organizing a meeting to establish a working relationship to continue discussions on how to proceed.

Ontario
The Ministry of Health has assured CAPA staff that PA regulation is in the works. CAPA staff is anticipating learning more in the spring and will be sure to update the members as we are apprised of any developments.

The Government of Ontario recently released its 2021 Recovery Budget: Ontario’s Plan to Protect People’s Health and the Economy. The plan focuses on capital investments for hospitals, infection prevention and control measures, investments into long-term care, and support for vulnerable people and communities. For more information, including what is missing from the budget, click here.

CAPA 2021 MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
It’s official CAPA 2021 is going virtual once again. Save the date from November 4th to 7th to ensure you can engage with industry experts, earn CPD credit hours and participate in valuable networking opportunities. Watch for a conference email outlining pertinent information, including the call for speakers and abstracts coming to your inbox soon.

PA RESEARCH
Nathalie Dyer, CCPA was part of a research study to determine the Effect of a physician assistant on quality and efficiency metrics in an emergency department. Main outcome measures of the study include overall ED performance, which were evaluated using metrics from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care: rate of patients who left without being seen, provider initial assessment time at the 90th percentile, and the average provider initial assessment time for all patients over a 6-month period. To view the entire study, visit the CAPA website. Good work Nathalie, congrats!
Have you been a part of a research study? Have you written an article that was published? If so, please send it to Alexis at agunawardena@capa-acam.ca so that we can share with your PA colleagues.

PAs IN THE NEWS
Anne Dang featured in Young Women in Business Career Exploration Series focusing on Physician Assistants. Read the full article here.

If you see members being recognized within your workplace or in your community, let us know so we can spread the good news. And if you see local health care headlines and believe there is an opportunity to highlight PA contributions or follow up with a letter to the editor, we would like to hear from you. Please contact Alexis at agunawardena@capa-acam.ca.

JOB LISTINGS
Visit members-only Job Listings on the CAPA website for the latest career opportunities across Canada.
If you have job ads to share, send them to us at admin@capa-acam.ca. We post job ads for free on the Job Listings page and, for a small fee we email job opportunities to all our members.

WE ARE MOVING – TO A NEW LOCATION!
The Canadian Association of Physician Assistants is relocating. We are excited to announce that our office is moving. As of 1 May 2021, our new location will be:

1 – 436 MacLaren Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K2P 0M8

Our phone number remains the same. There will be no interruption of service during our move.