FP Report -- 1999 Post-Assembly Edition
Congress addresses urban health, IMGs, collective bargaining
Among its decisions Sept. 14-16 in Orlando, Fla., the AAFP Congress of Delegates created a task force and forum, and opted to continue studying collective bargaining.
- The new Task Force on Urban and Inner-City Issues will meet during the coming year and make a report to the 2000 Congress of Delegates.
"I have both trained and practiced in an urban environment," said delegate Donya Powers, M.D., of East Providence, R.I. "We are dealing with tertiary care centers; many of our people don't know what a family physician is. The Academy has been very good at dealing with issues about rural practice, and we're asking the same for urban issues."
The task force will address such topics as recruitment of residents to urban practice, retention of urban family practices, funds for such practices, inner-city violence and the relationship a physician may have with a community in which he or she does not live.
The Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin academies sought support for a new committee on urban and inner-city issues, but the Congress instead requested a task force.
- The other "new home" the Congress created is a forum for international medical graduates within the former National Conference of Women, Minority and New Physicians. With the addition of the IMG forum, the Congress renamed the meeting the National Conference of Special Constituencies.
The 1997 Facts About Family Practice says that 15 percent of active AAFP members are IMGs, and 14 percent of family practice residents are IMGs.
- The Congress also considered whether family physicians need collective bargaining units and decided the AAFP should continue studying that question in the coming year. Delegates asked the Academy to examine the possible need for local, state or national bargaining units and report back to the Congress in 2000.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1999 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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