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"The Friendly Club"
Tuesdays at 12:15 p.m.
Woodvale Facility and Golf Clubhouse
4540 - 50 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T6L 6B6 Canada
Our Club meets every Tuesday at the Woodvale Club except for the last Tuesday of the month. A Meeting With A Twist is a meeting and social at a location, date and time to be determined. Members will be notified by email of the details.
This week we heard from Dr. Stephan van Vuuren, a family physician and fellow Rotarian. Stephan told us that there is a shortage of family physicians in Alberta for many reasons, an ageing population combined with an influx of new people has increased demand on the system. This, combined with a shortage of physicians and the fact that many new physicians choose to work part time due to family commitments, means that there are not enough family physicians to serve everyone.
He also told us that a few years ago the government changed the way they pay family physicians and now require much more detailed and specific documentation on the services provided to each patient before they will provide payment. They also frequently send paperwork back and require more information. He said that this has added more hours of work to each day and has resulted in physicians having to cut back on the number of patients thay can see each day so that they also have time to complete the required paperwork. He said that this is especially a burden for physicians with small practices. Stephan said that this pracice has also discouraged many young physicians from going into Family Practice. He also said that the regulations currently require that many small procedures must be done by a doctor when many health professionals are now better educated and could easily be trained to perform these simple procedures.
Stephan told us that the proposed new model would be based on Primary Care Networks of supervising family doctors along with supporting staff such as nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses, dietitians, pharmacists etc. who would work together as a team. Each Network would be paid a set fee per patient per year. The number of allowed Networks in the province would be limited to less than the current number. He said that many physicians are very skeptical about the possible increase in workoad this would put on them. They are also worried that it may actually require even more time spent on paperwork and less time with their patients. They are also concerned that it may not adequately compensate them for the needs of more complicated or older patients.
He said that the government is currently working out the details of how this will all work and that we should have more information by the fall. He said that the system needs to become more stable in order to reduce the fear that physicians currently have about having more work than they can manage.
We would like to thank Stephan for this very informative and frank discussion of the Primary Care system in Alberta.
Meeting With a Twist for March, scheduled for Wednesday, March 27th, 2024, will be a guided Walk Thru the Pyramids at the Muttart Conservatory in the River Valley at 9626 96A Street. The adult only event starts promptly at 7:00 and will treat you to the first real ‘taste of Spring’ with the ‘fresh’ aroma of tulips and narcissus. Tickets are $14.95 each payable at the door. If you arrive early you may wish to purchase your choice of a glass if wine or other beverage to enjoy along the way. This is a highly popular evening. As they require an approximate number of attendees in advance to ensure adequate staffing, please let me know if you plan to attend and I will provide that info to them. Please reply to me by Wednesday. March 20th. (Rose Marie 780-435-5224 or rmcon@telus.net) This is a highly popular event but well worthwhile AND proof that “Spring is on the way”.
Our flag program was started by Bruce Flesher in 2008 after he returned from a trip to Houston, Texas to visit with family. While there he visited a Rotary club that was using a Flag program to raise funds for their club. It involved the club members planting flags on the front lawns of people for National Holiday weekends in return for a club donation. He thought that it might work for us here in Edmonton and it turned out he was right! We needed to purchase flags, poles and stakes and organize teams of members to sell, plant and retrieve the flags several times each year.
In the spring of 2009 several club members (Bruce Flesher, Bill Skelly, Ted Griffiths, Larry Sales, Hal Quilliam, Orville Sleen and Rose Marie Basaraba) canvassed the neighbourhoods they lived in and managed to sell over 260 flags. Bruce alone sold more than one hundred in his neighbourhood of Blackburne, so many that he was known to his neighbours as ’The King of Blackburne’.
Bruce Flesher, unknown, Joyce Flesher, Bill Skelly, Loraine Skelly and Hal Quilliam in 2009
Bruce Flesher’s ongoing dedication, hard work and long hours really helped to get this project off the ground and keep it going for many years. The Strathcona Flag Program has been our main fundraiser for projects that are not eligible for Alberta Gaming restricted funds. We now plant about five hundred flags for the Victoria Day weekend, Canada Day weekend and Labour Day weekend each year. This involves almost every able bodied member we have, plus a few family members and friends who have volunteered their time as well.
In 1990 several members of our club, Ron McCullough, Morley MacCalder and Peter Jorgensen, helped to establish the Nisku Leduc Rotary Club. The club held their inaugural meeting on 29 Nov 1990 at 7:15 a.m. with nineteen Strathcona Club Rotarians to help them celebrate.
As reported in the 20 Oct 1991 edition of our Strathconian Bulletin:
“November 8th will be a big day for the 27 charter members in the Nisku Rotary Club and for the Strathcona Rotary Club as we celebrate our first new club sponsorship. Congratulations are in order for Ron McCullough and Morley MacCalder who have worked so hard to deliver this baby. The festivities start at 6:00 pm with cocktails at the Nisku Inn, dinner at 7:00 and program and dance to follow that. This is a club project and we expect to see all of you taking part in the festivities. The cost is $30.00 per person and dress is semi-formal. The innkeeper and fresh Rotarian, Leon Algazidas has promised superb eating and with rotary fellowship, this will be an evening you and your companion will not want to miss. Tickets available from both Morley and Ron.”
They held their Charter meeting on 8 Nov 1991 with Armand Gagner as their Charter President.
We are desperately in need of more donations for our Wheel of Fortune. Please bring your donations to the meeting with you and give them to either Ken or Eric Germain. Small, new items such as wine, small gadgets, candy, books and any other small non-perishable items are welcome, in particular something you yourself would be happy to win!
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905.829.5299
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