Canadian Health Professionals Secretariat

CHPS held their semi-annual meeting in Ottawa on May 1st and 2nd, 2008. HSAS was represented by Cathy Dickson, Debra Ginther and Chris Driol

The Canadian Health Professionals Secretariat (CHPS) was formed by the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) to serve as a forum where health science professionals from across Canada could meet to discuss common concerns and take collective action to raise the profile of health science professionals across our nation. Currently, CHPS represents 60,000 professionals from all provinces in Canada with the exception of Quebec.

Larry Brown, Secretary Treasurer of NUPGE spoke to our group about issues surrounding publicly funded health care sustainability, ethical pension investment philosophies and practices. He also highlighted concerns regarding the formation of Enterprise Saskatchewan and how this relates to the Trade Investment, Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) and legal challenges being mounted across the country against Essential Services legislation.

We heard a report from CHPS leadership who had initiated a meeting with the Federal NDP Health Critic and also heard details about a similar meeting initiated by the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals which HSAS President Chris Driol attended at their invitation.

Our group also heard from a representative of “Canadian Doctors for Medicare” and discussed initiatives to partner with this group and others who support and wish to improve the publicly funded health care system.

The second day of our meeting was dedicated to receiving reports from across the country on issues related to health care funding, collective bargaining, health care re-organization and challenges faced by health care professionals in other jurisdictions.

Our meeting concluded with a lively update and round table discussion regarding best (and worst) practices for Market Supplement which are in place or being initiated across the country.

The struggle to retain and recruit health care professionals is clearly national and even international in scope. Market Supplements appear to be the choice of employers in their efforts to address critical shortages of health care professionals.

For more information, please visit NUPGE’s website using the following link:
NUPGE – National Union of Public and General Employees