On February 25th, OMSA Council convened in Toronto at the OMA Offices for its 6th full meeting of the 2022-2023 year. OMSA had the privilege of welcoming OMA CEO Allan O'Dette to discuss the current state of Ontario's healthcare system and its future.
Other highlights from the meeting included discussions on
It is with great sadness that OMSA remembers and honours our colleague, peer, and dear friend Abeera Shahid, who passed away unexpectedly on December 19th, 2022. Abeera was a 3rd year medical student at the University of Ottawa and OMSA’s Vice President of Advocacy.
On September 3rd, 2022, OMSA Council unanimously endorsed the following two position papers written by Ontario's medical students:
A summary of all previously endorsed position papers can be found here.
Bill 124 is an Ontario legislation that limits wage increases for nurses and actively contributes to the current nursing staffing crisis by exacerbating burnout, decreasing morale, and undervaluing the essential role that nurses play in our healthcare system. In doing so, Bill 124 threatens the quality of healthcare provided to patients across the province, and negatively impacts the training of future medical professionals. The strain Bill 124 has placed on the healthcare system will have adverse effects at all levels of care, for years to come.
58% of workers living in Canada do not have access to paid sick leave. Since labour policy is provincially regulated, paid sick leave legislation differs across the provinces. Currently, paid sick leave is only legislated in Quebec (two days per year), in PEI (one day after five years with the same employer), and for federally-regulated workers (three days per year). In Ontario, where there are no provincially regulated sick days, individual workplace policies dictate access to paid sick leave.
At the beginning of this month, the Government of Ontario released a new tiered framework for the province to combat the spread of COVID-19. On November 12th, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) released a statement calling for tighter restrictions from the Ontario government to curb the spread of COVID-19. With record high cases increasing by the day, the Ontario Medical Students Association (OMSA) supports the OMA’s call to increase restrictions within each tier of the framework and allocate more resources for testing and contact tracing.
As a community of future physicians, OMSA recognizes that racism and discrimination have direct consequences on health and contribute to creating and perpetuating health inequities. As an
OMSA is concerned about the province's plan to substantially cut support for municipal health units by reducing the provincial share of program funding. Several municipalities, regional governments, and other healthcare stakeholders including the Ontario Medical Association have also expressed their concern about reducing support for local public health units. The vague nature of recent healthcare cuts have left the future of our provincial healthcare system unclear to both the general population as well as to healthcare students and professionals.
OMSA held its Annual Lobby Day today at Queen's Park where 60 medical students across Ontario met with Members of Provincial Parliament. Ontario medical students are alarmed by the increasing number of medical graduates who do not secure a residency spot to continue their required medical training, otherwise known as going 'unmatched'. This is the second straight year where Ontario medical students voted to advocate on this issue. Historically, 10 to 20 graduates in Canada were unmatched each year, but that number reached an all-time high in 2018 when
Today, hundreds of Ontario medical students are receiving the first iteration results of the 2019 R-1 Main Residency Match. OMSA would like to congratulate our colleagues who matched today. We also express our support to all students who were not matched to a residency training spot. These results do not define you. Information regarding next steps including the second iteration are available at carms.ca and through your school's Student Affairs Office.