Member, Specialist Services Committee (Doctors of BC)

Do you have an interest in physician specialist care in BC’s health system? Do you want to aid in building more collaborative partnerships between physicians and health care decision makers?

Open to: Patient partners across the province

Lead Organization or Department

Doctors of BC

Aim

The Specialist Services Committee (SSC) is a joint collaborative committee that represent a partnership between the provincial government  and Doctors of BC. It aims to engage physicians in health care improvement through quality improvement initaitves that build collaboration between physicians and the health system. Most of the work of the SSC centers around care that physician specialists provide such as acute care, surgery, and community speciality care. The Committee is currently comprised of leaders and decision makers from the Ministry of Health, Health Authorities, and physicians. The committee is wishing  to include the patient perspective in committee work such as discussions and decision making, to ensure that outcomes of the SSC are inclusive and grounded in the patient perspective.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of collaborate on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the health care partner will work together with you to formulate solutions and incorporate your advice and recommendations into the decisions to the maximum extent possible.  

Eligibility

• Patient Partners who are not a current or previous registered health care professional (e.g. nurse or doctor). As the committee already contains multiple people with clinical backgrounds the committee is looking for patient partners who can speak from a non clinical perspective.
• Comfortable speaking to the general patient experience rather than to a specific cause or condition
• Comfortable thinking, speaking, and understanding abstract and strategic conversations about the ‘big picture’ of health care
• Experience working on a board, committee, or within an area of governance
• Comfortable sharing their experience with the health system
• Able to communicate honestly and openly in front of health system leadership
• A current PVN member

If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and volunteer agreement, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact the engagement leader directly.

Logistics

• Vacancies: 2
• Date: 6 full day, in-person meetings a year: June 21, Sept 20, Nov 22. Meetings in 2019 have not been scheduled yet but they will occur on the 3 Thursday of Jan, Feb, April, & June (Patient Partners will either start in April or June 2018 depending on availability)
• Time: 9:00-4:00pm
• Location: Doctors of BC Office in Vancouver, BC

Commitment

• 1 year term
• Committee members are expected to attend all 6 in person meetings throughout the year (extenuating circumstances aside)
• Committee members are expected to read pre-distributed meeting material prior to each meeting

Reimbursement

Expenses for Patient Partners attending the in person meetings in Vancouver will be covered including travel, accommodation, & meals.

Background

The SSC has recognized that including patient representatives could improve their discussions and further inform the conversation. As most of the work and conversations of the committee surrounds strategic initaives, the SSC is seeking patient partners who are comfortable engaging in high level conversations, comfortable with senior leaders, and are able to speak to the broader context of health care rather than a specific area. Currently the terms of reference are being updated but will be circulated to selected patient partners once finalized.  For further information on the SSC please visit their website at www.sscbc.ca and/or see this brochure.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Teresa Bissenden
Engagement Leader, Patient & Public Engagement | Provincial
604.668.8253
tbissenden@bcpsqc.ca