MD Surgical Assistants Ontario MIG

Our Surgical Assistant Education Day held on April 14, 2024 was a great day of learning for Surgical assistants! This year's conference was a hybrid model, both allowing virtual and in-person attendance. 

Our next CME event is being planned, tentatively for November 2025.

Check back this fall for further planning developments!

If you have any questions or would like further information about our education session or AGM, please contact Jennifer Csamer by email at: jennifer.csamer@oma.org. 

Our Annual General Meeting was held on February 29, 2024 at 7:00 pm

A video link to view the proceedings will shortly be posted here.

If you have any questions or would like further information about the education session or AGM, please contact Jennifer Csamer by email at: jennifer.csamer@oma.org. 

If you are not yet a member of the MIG and would like to join, please login to the O.M.A..website. At the top right, click on your name, and then click on 'My Account'.

Scroll down the left hand column and look for 'Groups'. Click on 'Join Another Medical Interest Group'. Click on the empty box and choose  'Surgical Assists' from the drop- down list.. That's It! Welcome to the Group. Once you have joined, please email us at info@mdassistgroup.com , let us know that you have joined, and we will add you to our email distribution list for up-to-date Ontario Surgical Assist information.

Alternatively, you can contact membership@oma.org for assistance.

OMA Website: https://www.oma.org/

The Surgical Assistants Group would like to congratulate our new executive on their successful appointment by acclamation to the executive of the OMA Surgical Assistants Group.

Our new representatives for 2024/2025 at the OMA are:

Dr. Martha Riesberry Chair

Dr. Lawrence Colman Vice Chair

Dr. Drue Mandel Treasurer

Dr. Florentina Teoderascu Communications Officer/ Member at Large

Dr. Erin Chouinard Secretary

Attention Surgical Assists:

On -call stipends for Surgical assists are about to be funded differently across Ontario.

No matter how your stipend has been funded in the past, your on-call group must apply for the new funding by November 20, 2023.

Please contact your Surgical Assist Lead, or hospital administration at once, to ensure your on-call stipend (also known as Hospital On Call Coverage, or HOCC funding) continues, and an application has been sent in for your group.

We have received several enquiries regarding changes to  funding, and how each hospital and On-call group can complete an application for  Hospital On-Call Coverage. Please note that both the hospital and the on-call group must jointly submit this application.

Here are the steps to submitting an application:

An online application survey must first be filled out by your hospital administration on behalf of your on-call group. They have been sent a link for this from the Ministry of Health for them to do so.

Then, for the application to proceed, your Surgical Assist Lead must submit the following HOCC Application Documents to your hospital administration, and copy the Ministry of Health (at oncall@ontario.ca ) and the  OMA (at on-call@oma.org) on behalf of your on-call group:

1.       Supporting Signatures Support Signatures - Burden Based HOCC Application

2.       Call Schedule HOCC On Call Schedule

3.       Groups of 21 or more physicians (if applicable) Groups of 21 or More Physicians - Burden Based HOCC Application

 THESE DOCUMENTS ARE POSTED ON OUR RESOURCES PAGE (LINK AT UPPER RIGHT OF THIS PAGE) for your convenience

We hope this eases the process of completing this application, and acquiring your funding.

The Surgical Assist MIG executive

Dear Colleagues,

If you are one of the 5018 who have assisted at surgery at all in the past year, this update is for you. And even if you haven't, you may find it informative.

In terms of representation, as you may be aware that we are currently considered a “MIG – Medical Interest Group” instead of a “Section” with the OMA. As a MIG, our group does NOT have voting power in the OMA General Assembly and we do not have as much funding as a Section. Dr Riesberry has been trying to round up forces across the nation (particularly Saskatchewan and BC) to establish a national surgical assist chapter in hopes of regaining our OMA “Section” status. In addition, Dr Riesberry attended the OMA Annual General Assembly meeting, and addressed challenges and difficulties faced by MIG particularly when it comes to representation. 

We have been working hard with the OMA Event Planners for our upcoming Education Day. This CME event has been delayed, and our CME event will now happen

on April 14, 2024. We are planning and working towards a hybrid event, with both virtual and in-person attendance options available for 2024.

See you at the Education Day,

Your OMA Surgical Assist MIG Executive Team

Please look on our Jobs Board ( click on the tab on the top right of this page) 'Jobs' or follow this link to see the Jobs board:

https://sites.google.com/mdassistgroup.com/www-mdassistgroup-com/jobs?authuser=0