Posted: May 09, 2021 2:14 PM CT | Last Updated: May 9
Eben Strydom became the Saskatchewan Medical Association s president on Friday after a vote at a virtual event.(Submitted by Saskatchewan Medical Association)
The Saskatchewan Medical Association s new president and former vice-president hails from rural Saskatchewan and intends to make that part of his focus representing the organization for the next year.
On Friday at a virtual event, the association that represents some 2,400 physicians in Saskatchewan elected Dr. Eben Strydom, a physician currently working in Melfort, Sask., as its 55th president.
Strydom is taking over as president of the Sask. Medical Association amid the COVID-19 pandemic. On the front lines he said he s heard a lot of worry and fatigue from physicians.
A Melfort family physician is now the President of the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA).
Dr. Eben Strydom was elected to the position at the Spring Representative Assembly on Friday, May 7 that was held virtually.
“It’s a great privilege and responsibility,” Strydom told
northeastNOW. “But also a vehicle to talk to people and to help with the aspects and the problems that I’m familiar with, and dealing with on the Board of Directors, as well as a rural doctor.”
Strydom has been in Melfort since 2003 and is originally from southwest Africa. He said as president, he will look after all the physicians in the province but he has the main focus of family medicine. Strydom called family medicine the backbone of our medical system, but it’s having a “tough time” right now.
Strydom said the pandemic threatens to strain the healthcare system to its limits, even though more people are getting vaccinated. “Physicians and health-care workers need resources and supports in place to enable them to do their jobs, for their own safety, the safety of their staff and patients, and the viability of the health system. We can’t let our guard down now,” he said. “Hopefully by the end of my term the province is in a new place, with a resumption of more normal activities. We all want that. I do too.” Strydom said rural medicine is one of his priorities. He said every region in the province is different, but they all require a sufficient cohort of physicians to cover clinical work, maintain an ER and have a reasonable call schedule so that they don’t burn out.
Prince Albert Daily Herald
by Ken MacDougall
Two things that have continued to drive me crazy over the past ten years of teaching is, first, how little we expect our children to know before they matriculate, and secondly, how once they do have that certificate, how many believe that their educational “experience” has finally come to an end. In this age of “helicopter parenting”, a polite way to describe parents who fight their children’s educational battles, this sense of “graduation” by the child is viewed as a success. Moreover, it gives false testimony to those who now believe their children are fully prepared to manage their own lives and contribute to the betterment of society.