By Lasia Kretzel

Doctors urge health workers to fight poverty

Nov 6, 2014 | 5:41 AM

Two Canadian doctors are urging their fellow medical professionals to fight poverty with the stethoscope.

Private practitioner Dr. Gary Bloch and Canadian Medical Association president Dr. Chris Simpson spoke at Le Relais on Wednesday.
 
The pair talked about how health-care professionals can work to help fight poverty in their communities.
 
The first step, according to them both is to label poverty as a disease because it will lead to “meaningful action.”
 
“If we make poverty a disease then it becomes a little bit easier to conceptualize how we can use our skills to help it,” Simpson said before speaking at the event hosted by the think tank Upstream.
 
Such skills, Simpson said, include knowledge of the city’s services and how to make costs manageable. However, he said taking a patients income level into consideration is not something doctors are traditionally trained to do.
 
“We think it’s every doctor’s job to know about the social services that are available to help maximize the effectiveness of income that people have but also to help them increase their income and avail themselves of the services that can minimize the effects of poverty,” he said.
 
In Toronto, Bloch has introduced policies into his own practice including having an employee who looks for ways to increase the income of patients.
 
Simpson also stressed a teamwork approach.
 
“If we have nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and dieticians all working together as a team, using their specific skills, then they can be better than the sum of their parts,” he said.
 
By labeling poverty a disease, Simpson said he is not trying to remove the responsibility of affected individuals but he says some causes of poverty are beyond control of the individual.
 
He said change within the system will be slow but doctors need to be proactive by talking to patients.
 
Wednesday’s lecture comes on the heels of the provincial government’s promise to develop a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy.

news@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow