The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce has for many years been active in the field of health care. Propelled by our members who have continually communicated it is increasingly obvious that health care, like housing and education, is intrinsically linked to all forms of growth, including for our business community, our city and our province. We have consistently advocated therefore, for urgent action and proactive reforms to meet the current needs and future growth of Fredericton.
In March, the chamber, in partnership with the Greater Fredericton Area Physicians Staff Organization, hosted our first Physicians Roundtable. This qualitative roundtable with local physicians emphasizes our ongoing commitment to listen, work and elevate physicians and health care professionals, to follow evidence-based research and first-hand experience, while imploring the government to follow this very same course when implementing reforms.
Our longtime focus on recruitment of physicians and health care professionals will continue, but also must be married to a commitment to innovation – for example the proliferation of interdisciplinary primary care centres. Bolstering our current health care offerings and growth in the form of innovation and reforms is only achievable through consistent communication between the government, local health authorities, and health care professionals. Equally important is the support and engagement of our local community, referring to the municipal government, the business community represented by our chamber of commerce, service groups and the laudable efforts of individual citizens.
The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce has embraced the need to expand efforts and highlight the benefits to align community actions in recruitment, retention and all steps advancing the livable healthy community we all desire. The City of Fredericton and regional service representatives are part of this effort and are coordinating individual functions to attract and support health care workers. By maximize existing and potential partnerships, and by seeking new solutions to long-standing problems, we can strengthen the system we have now, while working to improve to meet the demands of our growing city and larger community. These efforts ultimately create a unified and clear message that health care is important to Fredericton.
Within the changing and increasingly competitive landscape of Canadian health care, we must work as a community to build connections between health care professionals and our vibrant and welcoming community. To overcome existing disconnects and avoid alienating professional sectors, we must work to provide expected industry resources while communicating the value we assign to medical professionals on an individual human level. The personal connection is our strength in New Brunswick, and especially within our concerted efforts to strengthen Fredericton’s health care. Aligning all of our individual efforts will help to build an adaptive framework to attract and retain individuals who can help our system and be part of our growth now and in the future.
One Event as a Series of Actions
Our most recent effort in physician recruitment was the annual Fredericton Chamber of Commerce’s Medical Residents and Clerkship Student Welcome Reception. Hosted on Wednesday, July 24 at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Harrison McCain Pavilion.
This event is the proud result of efforts of our Physician Recruitment Committee which has been active since 2009. In recognition of efforts towards the betterment of our health care in Fredericton, we would be remis not to highlight this committee who meets regularly to assist with the planning of this event and our Physician Appreciation Day in the fall. The committee consists of community members who are busy professionals representing the medical field, banking, private business and retail.
This year’s Medical Residents and Clerkship Student Welcome boasted 68 attendees, of which included 3 clerks and 13 residents, joined by their partners. Our guests enjoyed a gallery tour during which the residents, clerks and new physicians were introduced to the gallery, and other highlights to introduce them of some of what Fredericton has to offer.
We were fortunate to have Dr. Eric Rideout join us for the evening, and he offered his important personal perspective as a returning Frederictonian and advice to other potential residents on coming back home to live and serve their community. Continuing the evening with another valuable perspective, Doctor Rossanna Rosa, an infectious disease specialist originally from Honduras shared her worldview within which Fredericton made perfect sense to her based on the quality of life offered for her young family.
Residents and clerks were gifted packages containing expressions of support from over 20 of our members, ranging from passes and memberships to various organizations in Fredericton, gift cards to enjoy services and shop in many of our favourite local stores and products from local establishments and businesses.
As we often speak of the Fredericton region, it is important to note the inclusive nature of our event. Mayor Kate Rogers spoke, and City of Fredericton staff were visible and present, including a booth by Fredericton Tourism. The Town of Oromocto was represented and their PRR committee attended as our guest to support our growing recruitment efforts as a region. Ignite (the regional economic development agency) was well represented as well and their booth was ready to provide any additional employment support, especially to spouses of the medical students and professionals.
Dr. Mark MacMillan, chair of the Chalmers Foundation was visible and engaged with the attendees, along with numerous board members of the Chamber, as well as family physicians currently residing in Fredericton who were available for conversation and to answer any questions that arose.
This event and our efforts would not be possible without the support of the businesses mentioned as well as the support of the New Brunswick Medical Society, ResearchNB, Horizon Health, the New Brunswick Business Council and the City of Fredericton. There is a reason that we can positively encourage alignment of supports and efforts to better our health care in Fredericton as so many businesses, organizations and municipalities step up to partner in important events such as ours.
New Initiatives Adding to a Clear Message
We are also excited to announce a new program we hope will play a small part amongst the collective effort of Fredericton’s health community. Under development for the past year, the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce is working to ensure that welcome baskets will be presented to physicians who have joined us in Fredericton. This expression of welcome will be delivered by hand to physicians and their families that have joined us this year. Working in coordination with the City of Fredericton, and Horizon Health, the Chamber fills and delivers welcome baskets once informed of newly contracted physicians arriving in the area.
These baskets will express welcome and impart a flavour of Fredericton and all the services our valued chamber members have to offer to those newly arrived. The baskets will contain selections from nine members which we have purchased, including Downtown Dollars, family passes to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Kings Landing, and the YMCA. Recipients will also find products from Jenna’s Nut Free Dessertery, Saltwinds Coffee, Consciously Clean and the Artisan District, as well as HotSpot parking credits.
We hope this new project will align with other efforts to express to newcomers in the medical field the importance the Fredericton business community places in local health care initiatives and some of the wonderful offerings Fredericton holds.
Next Steps
As we recount past and current efforts towards elevating Fredericton’s health care as a priority, we also look to future efforts and goals. It’s time to talk frankly about health care in our province from a distinctly Fredericton perspective, the needs, the challenges, and how we as a city and a region can be a leader in innovation and delivery of services to New Brunswickers. In the near future, we will be announcing a Fredericton Health Care Event set to take place in November. Working with the New Brunswick Medical Education Foundation, we are finalizing our plans to organize a breakfast and information event, entailing a fireside chat and panel discussion with participants representing multiple sectors of our Fredericton community and the health care space.
We will announce the details and how to join us for this important community event in September, but our clear goal is to incite discussion concerning the current state of Fredericton’s health care and our future needs as a rapidly growing city and region, and the numerous ways all of us can play a part!
For most of this last year we have been speaking about and advocating for action, and as we move into the winter and a new year, we will make the logical progression to identifying impact.