A long-time Burnaby family physician is vying to become the first B.C. president of the Canadian Medical Association in seven years.
Dr. Shelley Ross, who practiced in Burnaby for 36 years before closing her office in 2012 to become president of Doctors of B.C. (formerly the B.C. Medical Association), is one of three doctors in the province running for the nomination to become CMA’s president-elect.
“I thought that I could make a difference,” Ross said of her bid for the national post. “I certainly enjoyed my time as president of the Doctors of B.C. and I felt that connecting with the membership, speaking out on behalf of not only doctors but patients to improve the health care system was something that I was very passionate about.”
Ross is taking on two other former Doctors of B.C. presidents: Port McNeill general practitioner Dr. Granger Avery (1997/98) and Vancouver pediatrician Dr. Nasir Jetha (2011/12).
Besides serving as Doctors of B.C. president from 2012 to 2013, Ross has served as president of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada and the Medical Women’s International Association.
She is currently active on the General Practice Services and Shared Care committees –collaborative committees with Doctors of B.C., the ministry of health and the provincial health authorities.
Ross also continues to fill in at local doctors’ clinics and at the Burnaby Maternity Care Clinic.
CMA presidents are elected from a different province every year.
B.C.’s last CMA president in 2007/08 was controversial orthopedic surgeon Brian Day, who operates the private, for-profit Cambie Surgery Centre in Vancouver.
If elected, Ross would serve as president-elect from August 2015 to August 2016 and as president from August 2016 to August 2017.
Electronic voting for all members of Doctors of B.C. (doctors, residents and medical students) takes place from Jan. 16 to Feb. 23.
