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In June, he announced he was walking away from one of the most prestigious, and well-paid, medical jobs in Ottawa to devote his time to working with the homeless. Today, Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull is taking a meeting with an injection drug user on the gritty sidewalk outside one of Ottawa’s homeless shelters.
“We want to have a brief chat with you,” Turnbull says to Ricky Belanger, touching her arm lightly. They walk slowly along King Edward Avenue in front of the Shepherds of Good Hope. Turnbull, in shirtsleeves, leans in to talk to the slight, but imposing, woman over the roar of traffic. She listens intently. He wants Belanger, an addict who is a leader in the homeless drug community, to join an opioid exchange program to reduce spiking overdose rates, and to bring others with her. She overdosed three times recently and knows it is only a matter of time until she has “the big one.”
“We want you to work for us. We want you to work for the good side, not the evil side,” the 67-year-old says with a smile.
Turnbull, the soon-to-be-former chief of staff with The Ottawa Hospital, is doing rounds as part of his other life, with Ottawa Inner City Health. Rounds includes everything from meeting with individual addicts to talking harm reduction, to examining a patient’s badly swollen legs. Earlier in the morning he sat on the bed of a homeless man dying of lung cancer, in the palliative care ward of the Ottawa Mission. “Thanks for coming,” Keith Watts said weakly at the end of a quiet bedside consult.
“My pleasure, always,” replied Turnbull.
He currently devotes one day a week to doing rounds at the nine medical sites run by Inner City Health where he serves as medical director. In January, when he formally steps away from his $546,000 job (as of 2016) as chief of staff at the hospital, Turnbull will work full-time with the homeless.
Turnbull’s decision to leave his job a year before his contract was supposed to end and devote himself full-time to Ottawa Inner City Health, which he helped found 15 years ago, took hospital officials by surprise.
“We would have loved to have Jeff stay with us as chief of staff for many more years,” said hospital board chair Jamie McCracken in a note to staff about Turnbull’s decision.
Beyond the walls of the hospital, Turnbull’s decision drew comments from far and wide, with many calling him an inspiration.
Turnbull scoffs at the idea that there is anything heroic about his choice.
“I am not a saint. I view it as going back to things I love. I feel invigorated. I enjoy it. I like the people. I can hang out with those guys and enjoy every minute of it and I never get tired of it. To be honest, it is being a little bit selfish.”
Dolores Carroll, sitting, chats with RN Amanda McNaughton, left, and Dr. Jeff Turnbull, second from right, while Marc Reisson, far right, looks on at the Shepherds of Good Hope during Dr. Turnbull’s rounds with Ottawa Inner City Health Thursday, August 3, 2017.
Turnbull has a quiet, hands-on bedside manner when he meets with patients, most who have complex lives, addiction issues and multiple health problems. He jokes with patients and frequently holds their hands. Among the first lessons he learned in the shelters, he says, is not to judge.
“You are a star,” he says to Jeannie Lee, an injection drug user who has been taking oral opioids prescribed through Inner City Health to try to keep her from buying drugs on the street, at the end of a brief visit.
At The Ottawa Hospital, Turnbull sits on committees and helps direct policy decisions that, he says, can make a difference to the care that is provided to a large number of people. It is important work.
But his work with Inner City Health, he says, allows him to directly influence the health of individuals, and that gives meaning to what he does.
“Here you can make a big difference in a small community who really need it.”
Turnbull jokes he “won’t get rich” in his new role. He essentially does it for no pay. Many of the clients he works with don’t have OHIP cards. Some do. In the past, he has folded back any money he made through billing into the clinic for supplies and salaries and donated some of his hospital salary.
“I have been really fortunate that I have received a good income and I always felt that it was my responsibility to give that back. I am not a flashy dresser. I don’t have much need for money. My kids are grown and I live on a farm.”
Turnbull says he may continue to serve on a committee at The Ottawa Hospital, although that is not yet decided, and he will continue to work as chief of clinical quality at Health Quality Ontario. But his focus will be Ottawa’s homeless.
His work at Inner City Health will be far from low profile. The non-profit, which provides medical care to about 230 members of Ottawa’s homeless community, has pioneered a number of cutting-edge programs that are studied and copied around the world. Its managed alcohol program, The Oaks, run by Inner City Health and the Shepherds of Good Hope, is visited and emulated by health officials from around the globe.
Inner City Health also runs the largest palliative care ward in the province — on the upper floors of the Ottawa Mission — and is setting up a chronic palliative care program for the homeless. It is also on the brink of setting up Canada’s second opioid exchange program, to encourage injection drug users to use prescribed opioids, at a safe injection site, instead of potentially deadly street drugs.
Inner City Health, he says, is “changing the standard of care right across the world.” And it is rapidly expanding, which, in part, is why Turnbull decided it was time to give it his full-time attention.
“It has just gotten so much busier. We are starting to look at new programs that are more challenging. I felt that I was not paying as much attention to it as I should. I had to make a decision.”
Dr. Jeff Turnbull, centre, chats with Ricky Belanger, left, while Ottawa Inner City Health RN, Amanda McNaughton, right, looks on outside the Shepherd’s of Good Hope in Ottawa Thursday, August 3, 2017.
Turnbull works closely with executive director Wendy Muckle and other staff including nurses and nurse practitioners.
Among Inner City Health’s programs is targeted engagement and diversion, which reroutes members of the homeless community who are intoxicated from hospital emergency departments to rooms at the Shepherds of Good Hope, which is a partner in the program. The program has 45 rooms, which are almost always full. Last year, 3,400 ambulance trips were diverted from local hospitals. The aim is to get the patients involved in programs the next morning, rather than simply releasing them, as a hospital would do.
“The principle is you take a population of people who have unique needs and you give them care on their terms, according to what their expectations and needs are, rather than saying one size fits all and you have got to come to the hospital.”
Turnbull says the lives of people he meets through Inner City Health are eye-opening.
“The stories are just breathtakingly tragic. You have come to know these people for 20 years. To see them die acutely of trauma or slowly of an addiction that you can’t intervene effectively in, that is kind of tough to watch. But I think you have to say if it wasn’t for the program and the work that everyone does, then this person’s life would be much worse.”
He says he learns something every day that he works in the shelters, and it helps make him a better doctor.
“That gives meaning. This is what has given meaning to what I do and I think I am a better chief of staff because of it —I understand what it means to truly serve your community.”
epayne@postmedia.com
查看原文...
“We want to have a brief chat with you,” Turnbull says to Ricky Belanger, touching her arm lightly. They walk slowly along King Edward Avenue in front of the Shepherds of Good Hope. Turnbull, in shirtsleeves, leans in to talk to the slight, but imposing, woman over the roar of traffic. She listens intently. He wants Belanger, an addict who is a leader in the homeless drug community, to join an opioid exchange program to reduce spiking overdose rates, and to bring others with her. She overdosed three times recently and knows it is only a matter of time until she has “the big one.”
“We want you to work for us. We want you to work for the good side, not the evil side,” the 67-year-old says with a smile.
Turnbull, the soon-to-be-former chief of staff with The Ottawa Hospital, is doing rounds as part of his other life, with Ottawa Inner City Health. Rounds includes everything from meeting with individual addicts to talking harm reduction, to examining a patient’s badly swollen legs. Earlier in the morning he sat on the bed of a homeless man dying of lung cancer, in the palliative care ward of the Ottawa Mission. “Thanks for coming,” Keith Watts said weakly at the end of a quiet bedside consult.
“My pleasure, always,” replied Turnbull.
He currently devotes one day a week to doing rounds at the nine medical sites run by Inner City Health where he serves as medical director. In January, when he formally steps away from his $546,000 job (as of 2016) as chief of staff at the hospital, Turnbull will work full-time with the homeless.
Turnbull’s decision to leave his job a year before his contract was supposed to end and devote himself full-time to Ottawa Inner City Health, which he helped found 15 years ago, took hospital officials by surprise.
“We would have loved to have Jeff stay with us as chief of staff for many more years,” said hospital board chair Jamie McCracken in a note to staff about Turnbull’s decision.
Beyond the walls of the hospital, Turnbull’s decision drew comments from far and wide, with many calling him an inspiration.
Turnbull scoffs at the idea that there is anything heroic about his choice.
“I am not a saint. I view it as going back to things I love. I feel invigorated. I enjoy it. I like the people. I can hang out with those guys and enjoy every minute of it and I never get tired of it. To be honest, it is being a little bit selfish.”
Dolores Carroll, sitting, chats with RN Amanda McNaughton, left, and Dr. Jeff Turnbull, second from right, while Marc Reisson, far right, looks on at the Shepherds of Good Hope during Dr. Turnbull’s rounds with Ottawa Inner City Health Thursday, August 3, 2017.
Turnbull has a quiet, hands-on bedside manner when he meets with patients, most who have complex lives, addiction issues and multiple health problems. He jokes with patients and frequently holds their hands. Among the first lessons he learned in the shelters, he says, is not to judge.
“You are a star,” he says to Jeannie Lee, an injection drug user who has been taking oral opioids prescribed through Inner City Health to try to keep her from buying drugs on the street, at the end of a brief visit.
At The Ottawa Hospital, Turnbull sits on committees and helps direct policy decisions that, he says, can make a difference to the care that is provided to a large number of people. It is important work.
But his work with Inner City Health, he says, allows him to directly influence the health of individuals, and that gives meaning to what he does.
“Here you can make a big difference in a small community who really need it.”
Turnbull jokes he “won’t get rich” in his new role. He essentially does it for no pay. Many of the clients he works with don’t have OHIP cards. Some do. In the past, he has folded back any money he made through billing into the clinic for supplies and salaries and donated some of his hospital salary.
“I have been really fortunate that I have received a good income and I always felt that it was my responsibility to give that back. I am not a flashy dresser. I don’t have much need for money. My kids are grown and I live on a farm.”
Turnbull says he may continue to serve on a committee at The Ottawa Hospital, although that is not yet decided, and he will continue to work as chief of clinical quality at Health Quality Ontario. But his focus will be Ottawa’s homeless.
His work at Inner City Health will be far from low profile. The non-profit, which provides medical care to about 230 members of Ottawa’s homeless community, has pioneered a number of cutting-edge programs that are studied and copied around the world. Its managed alcohol program, The Oaks, run by Inner City Health and the Shepherds of Good Hope, is visited and emulated by health officials from around the globe.
Inner City Health also runs the largest palliative care ward in the province — on the upper floors of the Ottawa Mission — and is setting up a chronic palliative care program for the homeless. It is also on the brink of setting up Canada’s second opioid exchange program, to encourage injection drug users to use prescribed opioids, at a safe injection site, instead of potentially deadly street drugs.
Inner City Health, he says, is “changing the standard of care right across the world.” And it is rapidly expanding, which, in part, is why Turnbull decided it was time to give it his full-time attention.
“It has just gotten so much busier. We are starting to look at new programs that are more challenging. I felt that I was not paying as much attention to it as I should. I had to make a decision.”
Dr. Jeff Turnbull, centre, chats with Ricky Belanger, left, while Ottawa Inner City Health RN, Amanda McNaughton, right, looks on outside the Shepherd’s of Good Hope in Ottawa Thursday, August 3, 2017.
Turnbull works closely with executive director Wendy Muckle and other staff including nurses and nurse practitioners.
Among Inner City Health’s programs is targeted engagement and diversion, which reroutes members of the homeless community who are intoxicated from hospital emergency departments to rooms at the Shepherds of Good Hope, which is a partner in the program. The program has 45 rooms, which are almost always full. Last year, 3,400 ambulance trips were diverted from local hospitals. The aim is to get the patients involved in programs the next morning, rather than simply releasing them, as a hospital would do.
“The principle is you take a population of people who have unique needs and you give them care on their terms, according to what their expectations and needs are, rather than saying one size fits all and you have got to come to the hospital.”
Turnbull says the lives of people he meets through Inner City Health are eye-opening.
“The stories are just breathtakingly tragic. You have come to know these people for 20 years. To see them die acutely of trauma or slowly of an addiction that you can’t intervene effectively in, that is kind of tough to watch. But I think you have to say if it wasn’t for the program and the work that everyone does, then this person’s life would be much worse.”
He says he learns something every day that he works in the shelters, and it helps make him a better doctor.
“That gives meaning. This is what has given meaning to what I do and I think I am a better chief of staff because of it —I understand what it means to truly serve your community.”
epayne@postmedia.com
查看原文...
