Walley quits as president
After surviving attempted coup, Ontario Medical Association executive resigns en masse
A week after weathering a nonconfidence vote, the Ontario Medical Association president Virginia Walley, of Peterborough, and her five executive members resigned on Monday.
“The executive committee is making this choice in the hope that this will help unify doctors and advance the interests of the profession at this critical juncture,” said an OMA statement.
The resignations top off a tumultuous period which culminated in a non-confidence vote last Sunday. The vote fell short of the twothirds majority required to boot the leadership.
Doctors represented by the OMA have blamed the association’s leadership for failing in negotiations with the province. Many members are upset about issues like reductions to the physicians services budget, which they argue has resulted in an under funding of health care.
Ontario doctors are going into their fourth year without a contract and there are talks of job action.
Walley and the other members of the executive committee will remain on the OMA board of directors.
“They have a wealth of experience and knowledge that would be a significant loss to us if they were to leave the board,” the statement said.
The statement stressed that the OMA can “now refocus on mounting a strong and united front against a government that is intransigent in its approach to health care and disrespectful of physicians and the role we need to play in health care reform.”
An OMA spokesman said the organization is still able to function and make decisions.
Dr. Kulvinder Gill, president of Concerned Ontario Doctors, said she hopes the resignation of the executive committee marks the first of many steps the OMA could take towards “renewal.”
“If it’s truly meant genuinely to be for OMA renewal, to gain the trust of frontline physicians again, then OMA leadership must listen to voices from the frontline doctors who are demanding that their president be elected by general membership, that are demanding transparency and that are demanding accountability,” Gill said.
She added the resignations were a goal for her organization for the past six months.
“We’ve been advocating for this for the past six months, since the failed historic contract of the summer,” Gill said. “It’s certainly news that is welcomed by Ontario’s doctors.”