Rural Roots

SMA president Dr. Eben Strydom has been influenced by his small-town background

By Girard Hengen

Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) president Dr. Eben Strydom’s “five-year plan” is approaching its 20th anniversary.

Dr. Strydom was working at a hospital in South Africa when he came to Redvers, Sask., for a two-month locum in December 2000 during the dead of winter. It was a scouting mission of sorts.

“I worked with a friend when I was an intern at Paarl Hospital. He immigrated to Saskatchewan and worked in Redvers,” Dr. Strydom recalls. “He was looking for a locum as he wanted to go on holidays to see his family. That’s part of living in small-town Canada – and continues to be a problem – to have enough time to go away. When you go to Africa you can’t really go for two weeks.

“I said I could do a locum in December-January 2000-01, first of all to see how bad the winters are, and also to experience the health system a little bit before I think about bringing my family here and making any decisions about the future. I ended up having a great time in Redvers.”

Trained as a GP anesthetist and surgeon, Dr. Strydom was looking for an opportunity to use his skills in Canada. It came down to Dawson Creek, B.C., and Melfort. Dr. Pierre Hanekom, a Melfort physician originally from South Africa, happened to be vacationing in his home country and paid a visit to Dr. Strydom.

“He came around and introduced himself and we had a good chat about Melfort, so I was excited to come,” Dr. Strydom said. Two GP anesthetists had just left the community. When Dr. Strydom arrived in June 2003, he fell into a full practice involving obstetrics, anesthesia, and surgery. He came on what he calls a “five-year plan.”

“We were close to our families, so it wasn’t a simple decision to permanently immigrate,” he said. “Our plan was to come and pay down debt, tour a little bit and see the world, and then go back because our parents were getting older. Family support is a massive thing.”

But as the years passed, his family – wife Marianthè, and children Ockert and Lian – made Melfort their home. When it was time for a family discussion on their future, the choice was made to stay, but they needed more room.

“I bought the kids bows and arrows, and they didn’t have enough space,” Dr. Strydom said. “The arrows ended up in neighbours’ yards who had small kids and dogs. We decided we should look at other options. Luckily, we did find a perfect spot and moved to an acreage where they can play, have space, not hurt anybody and I could make loud noises doing carpentry without waking anybody.

“We have a good life here. I am able to do the things I love at work. It has been good for us as a family.”

Making a difference for rural doctors

Rural Saskatchewan is familiar to Dr. Strydom. Born in the town of Otjiwarongo in rural Namibia, his mother was a nurse and his father was a teacher. He was raised in Gobabis, a town of about 15,000 near the Botswana border that bills itself as the “heart of cattle country.” Like rural Saskatchewan, hundreds of kilometres separate major communities. He graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa with a BSc honours degree in 1992, and a medical degree in 1997. He worked for five years in Paarl Hospital, training as a generalist and obtaining post graduate diplomas in anesthesiology and obstetrics.

Early on in his career in Saskatchewan, Dr. Strydom was introduced to the SMA by local colleagues and strong advocates for rural medicine such as Drs. Lionel Lavoie, Bev Karras, and Larry Sandomirsky. He points to the enhancements in access to the GP anesthetist training program at the College of Medicine as an example where he and others could help make a difference for rural medicine.

“This showed me we actually could effect change through support from our RMAs and through SMA structures,” he said. “The ability to make things better drew me in. I was active in the SMA through working groups, I became part of the Committee on Rural and Regional Practice (CORRP), and from CORRP was elected to be on the SMA Board of Directors, and then the rest is history. I never saw it coming.”

He served on the Kelsey Trail Regional Medical Association for 16 years, the SMA Board of Directors, the Section of Family Practice, and the Intersectional Council. He was elected president of the SMA on Friday, May 7, during the 2021 Spring Representative Assembly, which was held virtually. He is the 55th president of the SMA, succeeding Dr. Barb Konstantynowicz, a Regina family physician.

Rural medicine and the COVID-19 pandemic will be priorities during his one-year term. He believes communities require a sufficient cohort of physicians to cover clinical work, maintain an ER, and have a reasonable call schedule in order to retain their doctors.

“Access to a family physician is a huge concern for residents throughout Saskatchewan but especially in rural Saskatchewan,” he added, saying the concept of the Patient’s Medical Home is fundamental to health care.

“I feel that integrated care is really important for all patients throughout the health system. Hopefully over time the technology will improve so that things like the duplication of services and wasteful repeated entry of the same data will be minimized and the flow of, and access to, information improved. I hope that improvements in EMR and other data server integration will make it easier and safer to help care for people throughout the province. We need to provide access for every citizen in the province to a family physician.”

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO YOU ARE OR WHERE YOU COME FROM, IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WE CAN HELP YOU. WE HAVE THAT RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE AND KEEP OUR SYSTEM ACCESSIBLE. WHERE THERE ARE BARRIERS, WE NEED TO BREAK THEM DOWN.

The pandemic has put much of the normal routine of health care on hold as knowledge of COVID-19 continues to evolve. Physicians and staff at all levels had to adjust to ever-changing circumstances and issues. He hopes the health system is in a much better position when his term as president concludes in the spring – that people will have taken much-needed time off to rest and recharge – but at that point other issues will be priorities. These include access to care, ensuring resources are in place to address wait times for surgical procedures, changes in the way medicine is practised including virtual care, and how facilities and clinics function with in-person visits. The lingering effects of COVID-19 are unknown at this point.

“The information that we learn on a daily basis will help us understand the dynamic better and how we deal with COVID-19,” Dr. Strydom said. “Everybody is just looking forward to getting to some sense of normalcy.”

‘Where there are barriers, we need to break them down’

Another crucial issue during his term is addressing issues of systemic racism within the medical community and health care. The SMA Board of Directors has created an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee with a mandate to begin work in this area. Dr. Strydom said as leaders in communities, physicians have to learn about the issues and what they can do to help bring about change. He remembers working in South Africa, where significant public-sector resources were spent addressing interpersonal violence and trauma, leaving little left over for routine procedures for many patients.

“We have to care for each and every person in this province equally,” he said. “In Saskatchewan, when I arrived here, it was nice to see that here I could help everybody equally. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, if you have a problem we can help you. We have that responsibility to make and keep our system accessible. Where there are barriers, we need to break them down. We need to ensure that we do everything we can to make people feel valued and for them to feel they can trust doctors and the healthcare system.” ◆