Family Doctor Week in Canada : December 5 to 11, 2005

Each year, at the time of Family Medicine Forum (FMF), the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) celebrates Family Doctor Week in Canada. This opportunity allows family physicians, their patients, and other health care professionals to acknowledge family physicians’ important contribution to health and health care across the country and to express how they value their relationships with one another. For family doctors, the discipline and practice of the specialty of family medicine is focused on patients, who are at the centre of all we do. Our interaction with all other medical specialists and health professionals is critical to the care we provide, arrange, and coordinate. For patients, repeated polls have reaffirmed how highly Canadians value having family physicians to provide care in all settings for them and their family members. For our peers in other health disciplines, the goal of enhancing collaboration with family doctors to improve quality of and access to health care has become paramount. It is appropriate, therefore, for all Canadians to reflect on these vital relationships at least once a year. In 2004, as part of our 50th Anniversary celebrations, the College launched Family Doctor Week. Statements were read by members of all parties in the House of Commons; feature sections were developed in major English- and French-language dailies; a book, Patients First; the story of family medicine in Canada, was published; and special ceremonies were held in every province where CFPC members, government leaders, and citizens witnessed the signing of Declarations of Commitment rededicating CFPC members to the principles of family medicine and to vital doctor-patient relationships. When Family Doctor Week in Canada was originally launched, the CFPC and the federal government agreed that it would not be a one-time occurrence but would be held each year at the time of the FMF, the CFPC’s Annual Scientific Assembly and business meetings. This year, Family Doctor Week in Canada will run from December 5 through 11; FMF will take place in Vancouver, BC, from Thursday, December 8, through Sunday, December 11. This year’s theme is “Preparing for Tomorrow.” To acknowledge the contributions of family physicians and to recognize Family Doctor Week in Canada, several special initiatives and events will take place both at FMF in Vancouver and across the country. Members of all parties in the federal House of Commons and provincial legislatures will be asked to deliver statements of support. Editorials, letters, and other special feature stories will be submitted to newspapers across the country. The FMF will be cohosted by the Americas Region of WONCA (the World Organization of Family Doctors) and will welcome colleagues from the United States and the Caribbean to join us. Dr David Butler-Jones, Canada’s Medical Officer of Health, will deliver the 2005 Family Medicine Lectureship on “Emergency Preparedness—the Role of Canada’s Family Doctors” as part of the opening ceremonies at FMF. A national press conference will announce the results of a public survey and will present the CFPC’s position on the need for increased support for family doctors in several key roles they play in delivering care to the people of Canada. Canada’s Family Physicians of the Year, one from each province, will be announced with special presentations at FMF and with national and provincial press releases. The first-ever CFPC medical student scholarships will be presented at FMF to 16 recipients: one from each Canadian medical school’s class of 2006. Thirty-two medical student and family medicine resident leadership awards will be presented at FMF. An All-Members Forum to be held at FMF will include updates and encourage open dialogue on issues our members have asked us to address, such as wait times and the effect of the recent Supreme Court decision, revalidation of licensure, family physician resources, medical students’ career choices, and progress reports on four major CFPC–Health Canada projects addressing the future of family medicine in Canada (enhancing support for family physicians in their practices, roles and relationships of family doctors and other specialists, increasing the role of family medicine in the undergraduate medical school curriculum, and establishing family medicine interest groups for medical students across Canada). Several Research and Education Foundation activities to support medical students’ family medicine scholarships will take place during FMF, including a silent auction, a spare change campaign, and a fun-filled fitness Walk for the Docs of Tomorrow. The CFPC, our Chapters, and university departments of family medicine are looking forward to developing activities and messages to help celebrate Family Doctor Week in Canada. While FMF 2005 will be a key venue where many events will unfold, we hope that the spirit of Family Doctor Week will spread far beyond the walls of the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. We hope this will become an annual opportunity for family physicians to celebrate the joys and rewards that accompany the privilege of caring for their patients over time and for the people of this nation to pause and reflect on the value of the relationships they have with their family doctors.

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