HOT TOPICS IN FAMILY MEDICINE

COVID-19 Vaccination Statistics:

In general Family Medicine seems to have lower vaccination numbers than some other hospital departments. At LHSC 54% of family physicians report one dose compared to 66% of LHSC physicians overall and at SJHC 43% of family physicians have had one dose compared with 45% of physicians overall. I suspect this is a reporting problem as many family physicians may not be used to reporting their vaccinations to the hospitals. It is important for our clinical departments to know what our vaccination statistics are and for our patients to know that we as family doctors have high confidence in the vaccination program as shown by a high vaccination rate.

For those of you not fully vaccinated and have had their first dose on or before May 9 please consider rebooking your expedited second dose by phone at 226-289-3560 or online.

Please, if you haven’t reported your vaccination send an email and a copy of your vaccine receipt to OHSS_appointments_VH@lhsc.on.ca for Victoria Hospital and OHSS_appointments_UH@lhsc.on.ca for University Hospital or sjhcvaccination@sjhc.london.on.ca for St. Joseph’s and Mount Hope. The Ontario provincial government will help you download your vaccination receipts, if needed, at https://covid19.ontariohealth.ca/

Thank you, Family Physicians and Primary Care Practitioners:

At this time, Wave 3 of the COVID pandemic is virtually behind us. Cases are down and hospital capacity is restored. More and more patients are being seen in person by family physicians and surgical programs are ramping up. Vaccinations are also ramping up to meet the incredible demand. I want to offer my personal thanks on behalf of the community to the many family physicians and primary care practitioners who have steadfastly supported their patients through the pandemic and are now working hard to vaccinate the population in their practices, at mass clinics, at pop-up clinics and in homes and congregate settings. Vaccination is the ticket out of this. We need to beat the COVID variants, Delta especially, to prevent a fourth wave or at least a severe one.

Beyond the Pandemic: Critical Topics in Primary Care:

The Citywide Department of Family Medicine is pleased to offer a series of four virtual CME sessions in place of our usual Annual Clinical Day for 2021. Each session will be followed by a short Faculty Development session designed to update and enhance your teaching skills. Only one of these sessions remains to be held as follows:

• July 7 – Dr. Maryna Mammoliti presents, DBT Skills in everyday life for Family Physicians and Update on Eating Disorders

Video Files for Family Medicine:

We now have links available to various presentations sponsored by the Citywide Department of Family Medicine, including our Grand Rounds in Family Medicine, Faculty Development sessions, and Beyond the Pandemic sessions, all accessed at the following links.

• Grand Rounds Playlist
• Faculty Development
• Beyond the Pandemic

Summer Break:

This is the last issue of the Chief’s Notes before the summer break. I sincerely hope you are able to have some time off, to enjoy the summer weather with your families, to recharge your batteries, and to come back, refreshed, to meet the challenge again. We will be back with Chief’s Notes again in September.