I am writing to express my gratitude and admiration to Drs Meili, Buchman, Goel, and Woollard for their articles that so eloquently call for social and political engagement from those of us working in primary care.1–4
After 20-odd years of practising family medicine in marginalized and disadvantaged communities, I find it heartening to read such credible and cogent arguments for the importance of addressing the broader determinants of health if we want our work to be about more than just applying Band-Aids.
I also want to express my appreciation to the editors and publishers of Canadian Family Physician for providing an appropriately prominent forum for making this argument.
I have always hoped that by helping individuals heal one at a time, I might be contributing to making the world a better place for all of us. Thank you for validating my idealism, and for reminding us that the equation works in both directions!
Footnotes
Competing interests
Dr Newman is a member of Canadian Doctors for Medicare and of Upstream.
References
- 1.Buchman S, Woollard R, Meili R, Goel R. Practising social accountability. From theory to action. Can Fam Physician. 2016;62:15–8. (Eng), 24–7 (Fr). [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Goel R, Buchman S, Meili R, Woollard R. Social accountability at the micro level. One patient at a time. Can Fam Physician. 2016;62:287–90. (Eng), 299–302 (Fr). [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Woollard R, Buchman S, Meili R, Strasser R, Alexander I, Goel R. Social accountability at the meso level. Into the community. Can Fam Physician. 2016;62:538–40. (Eng), 547–50 (Fr). [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4.Meili R, Buchman S, Goel R, Woollard R. Social accountability at the macro level. Framing the big picture. Can Fam Physician. 2016;62:785–8. (Eng), e568–71 (Fr). [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]