On Thursday, Physicians across Ontario received an alert from Dr. Sharon Bal, Board Chair of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) about a leadership change at the organization. Kim Moran is no longer the CEO. I think it’s safe to say the announcement caught most physicians off guard.
An OMA past president, Dr. Andrew Park, was appointed as interim CEO. I certainly wish Dr. Park well, although I note that he has, to my knowledge, not really run a comparably sized organization. I would also point out that while the title he had was “President”, the role really was media spokesperson (as I found out the hard way when I had the job). I do give him credit for holding an executive MBA, which makes him smarter than me.
Having recently been President, he would have a good idea of what’s going on internally in the organization, and for the sake of all physicians across Ontario, I hope he does well in the role while the search for a permanent replacement is carried out.
This doesn’t change the fact that the timing is exceptionally unusual. The continuation of the OMA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) is in just a couple of more days (June 23 at 6:30 pm). The agenda has a number of member-driven motions that, in my opinion, are designed to make the OMA more responsive to physicians and a stronger advocate for us. Such a significant leadership change before what is shaping up to be a very important meeting is going to raise eyebrows.
Medical politics is a funny business.
But more importantly, what does it mean for physicians right now? In my opinion, it is even more essential for all of us to show up at the continuation of the AGM. For those of us who have been frustrated with certain things that have gone on at the OMA, this does not mean that we can say, “Oh, good. The CEO is leaving. Things will be different,” and ignore the OMA again. I continue to maintain that the OMA is at its best and most effective when members keep a close eye on it and prevent it from going off the rails. If the member motions don’t pass, in my opinion, what’s going to happen is that the OMA will simply revert to its old ways and non-physicians will continue to have decision making authority over physicians.
This is not acceptable.
The first member motion is to end the idea of having non-physician Board Directors at the OMA. This has been discussed ad nauseum and I won’t restate the rationale here. You can just look at my blog on why the OMAs AGM really matters this year, or on why I hate non-physician Board Directors (I don’t).
But the second motion is also incredibly important. It prevents the OMA from screening or gatekeeping Board Director candidates. Dr. Paul Hacker has done a really excellent analysis of this motion. He points out, quite clearly:
“The OMA currently uses a third-party vetting process for Director nominees, overseen by the Governance and Nominating Committee. The GNC is the only body that sees the complete list of candidates and the full vetting results. The criteria weighting used, the rankings produced, and the reasons for including or excluding specific candidates are not shared with the full Board. The Board is asked to approve a slate based on information it does not have access to in its entirety.”
This is just plain wrong and needs to be fixed.
Dr. Hacker was going to do a guest blog for me. But with the news about the CEO, I felt compelled to write a different blog about the importance of the AGM. However, I strongly encourage you to read his blog on why the second members motion is so important.
There are also other members motions that I am not seconding that physicians really should have a say on.
However, I guarantee you that none of these changes will occur, regardless of who the CEO is, unless all of us show up at the AGM and vote in favour. As Dr. Greg Dubord if fond of pointing out, the “Iron law of oligarchy“means that without members acting, organizations insulate themselves from member accountability, prioritizing institutional preservation over their founding mandate. In essence, they wind up placing themselves above the members. So please, please, please, if you haven’t already registered, do so by clicking here and attend the meeting.
You must register by Monday June 22 at 6:00 pm.
The OMA will only be as strong as the amount of supervision and guidance that physicians give it. This leadership change does not mean we should take our foot off the gas pedal. We all need to attend the AGM and make our voices heard.
justanoldcountrydoctor 