Tim Lougheed
In the weeks leading up to the holiday season, you can find Dr. Jeff Turnbull beginning his morning with physician rounds at homeless shelters in Ottawa, then winding up the day with meetings in Toronto, tending to the administrative demands of the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO).
It is all in a day’s work for the recently elected president of that council, who also chairs the Department of Medicine for the University and The Ottawa Hospital. The CPSO is the self-regulating body for the province’s 23,000 doctors, overseeing the practice of medicine in the public interest.
Turnbull has been a member of the CPSO Council since 2000, when he became the University’s academic representative for the college. He spent the last four years as chair of its Physicians’ Resources Task Force, which has been examining ways of enabling more physicians to qualify for practice in Ontario.
That subject is one of the three key areas he intends to pursue during his 2006-2007 term as president. He also intends to enhance the college’s public outreach efforts, as well as leading a strategic planning initiative to guide the CPSO over the next five years.
“It’s an essential time to plan, because there’s so much change around us,” he says, explaining that shortages have put physicians and the entire system under pressure, even as public expectations continue to rise. “If we don’t plan, we’re going to suffer from being reactive all of the time. And the public needs assurance that they’re getting the absolute best health care possible.”
According to Dr. Jacques Bradwejn, interim dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Turnbull is well qualified for the job, combining grassroots experience with extensive academic insights and an appreciation of the central health care missions: service, education and research.
“He can see the small details and the big picture,” Bradwejn points out, referring specifically to Turnbull’s extensive work on the relationship between poverty and health. Dubbed an “urban angel” for his role as medical director of the Inner City Health Project focusing on Ottawa’s homeless population, Turnbull has received various grants and awards for these activities. He has also taken part in similar efforts abroad, examining the link between health and development in places like Bangladesh, Kenya and the Balkans.
Turnbull intends to retain his posts in Ottawa while serving as CPSO president, a workload that might daunt many of us, but which he insists is essential to keeping the priorities of the college in perspective.
“I can take the reality of day-to-day practice in dealing with very complex issues for patients and bring them to physicians,” he says. “Yet at the same time it goes the other way. If you want to influence change, and you want to make life better for people on the street or in the average physician’s practice, you have to take a leadership role in looking at issues of policy and advocating for health.”
