Medicine Hat-based family physician Dr. Fredrykka Rinaldi became president of the Alberta Medical Association on Oct. 3. Rinaldi will serve in the role for a term of one year.--NEWS PHOTO KENDALL KING
kking@medicinehatnews.com
As Medicine Hat family physician Dr. Fredrykka Rinaldi settles into her new role as Alberta Medical Association president, her focus remains set on mending relations between doctors and the province and improving the state of the health-care system.
Raised in Medicine Hat, Rinaldi left the city for schooling but returned following her graduation from Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine. In 1991, she earned her certification from the College of Family Physicians of Canada, following which she opened her local family medical practice and became an official member of the AMA.
Over the course of her 31 years in the medical field, Rinaldi has taken on a variety of roles representing or advocating for physicians and physician needs. Within the AMA, Rinaldi has served in more than 15 leadership roles as well as on the Palliser Health Region board of directors prior to the establishment of Alberta Health Services and the Palliser Medical Staff Association.
“I like this part of practice (serving in representative and advocacy roles) because it’s a little bit different than clinical and it’s sort of a challenge to think outside the box,” Rinaldi told the News.
Rinaldi says as well as offering a challenge, such roles provide an opportunity to learn different details of the health-care system and its operation, as well as provide honest – she admits sometimes blunt – feedback reflective of physicians’ experiences and needs.
Despite her longstanding involvement in such, Rinaldi was surprised to have been offered the position of AMA president, yet accepted, officially stepping into the role Oct. 3.
While her term lasts only one year, Rinaldi is determined to address issues she believes are negatively impacting Alberta’s health-care system, with the current relationship between doctors and the province, and system stability and survivability, at the forefront.
“(The current state of health care) is pretty disastrous,” Rinaldi said. “So, I will be working towards the things that are important, which is stability, patient care, survivability of lots of practices, recruitment – and even bigger to look at right now is retention because recruitment is ephemeral.”
Rinaldi acknowledges such issues are too large to fix within a year, but plans to work with AMA members, other leaders in the medical field and government officials to come up with short-term solutions. And in doing so, hopes to mend – or at least advance – relations, particularly that between physicians and the province.
“Doctors have a lot of level of mistrust and I can understand that,” said Rinaldi. “But at some point, you really have to move on (because) if we don’t try to come up with plans together, we’ll get nowhere. We’ll just fall apart.”
Rinaldi points out however, effective collaboration is dependent on honest communication, compromise and consideration of medical experts’ opinions – something the AMA’s new president-elect, local emergency physician Dr. Paul Parks, has also advocated for.
