Dr. Yipeng Ge, PGY1 Public Health and Preventative Medicine

During one of my free weekends on an elective in child and adolescent psychiatry in Regina, Saskatchewan, I stumbled upon a memory that would continue to encourage me to reflect on the publicly funded and delivered healthcare services and system that Canadians receive to this day. I went to the MacKenzie Art Gallery with a friend to explore the Christi Belcourt and Isaac Murdoch exhibit entitled, ‘UPRISING: THE POWER OF MOTHER EARTH’. The gallery is located in the multipurpose T. C. Douglas Building, named after Tommy Douglas, widely known as the father of Medicare in Canada - he was the Premier of Saskatchewan and later as leader of the federal NDP. He saw his Medicare plan enacted in Saskatchewan in 1962 (the first medicare plan in Canada) and later by the federal government in 1966. 

Just as we were about to leave the building, we noticed a painting in the foyer of the building, of a Dr. Orville Hjertaas. That’s when a kind and knowledge security guard shared with us, the significance of Dr. Hjertaas to the movement of medicare in Saskatchewan, and ultimately later, Canada as a whole. He practised medicine in Prince Albert, becoming chief of surgery at both hospitals in the city, and pioneered the team approach to holistic, preventive medicine. When discussions about publicly funded healthcare as provincial law were being discussed and debated - that the ability to pay for healthcare services should not determine whether or not you received care - physicians widely protested this policy paradigm shift. Dr. Hjertaas was in the minority of physicians that continued to practice medicine - caring for people regardless of the ability to pay, as a form of protest. 

I think it is so very crucial to acknowledge that our current understandings of how primary healthcare and hospital-related care are structured and funded are in large part relatively new decisions. How quickly and greatly have our societal values shifted to not only recognize the social determinants of health but also reflect this in medical practice in all fields - but in particular, in family medicine. Our family doctors are well-positioned to take action on the various determinants that impact one’s ability to achieve health and wellbeing outside of the clinic and hospital environment, and sometimes this means doing what Dr. Hjertaas and many others continue to do - speak up and out about inequities and injustices, act with social accountability and responsibility, and work towards a world that prevents illness and fosters wellbeing. This is why I chose to embark on the journey of family medicine, and public health and preventive medicine.