SFMS' Impact on Public Health Issues in SF August 12, 2011 Advocacy, Local Events, News, Public Health, SFMS Member Care Not Cash, Health Care Services Master Plan Task Force, SFMS activity 0 In the last few months, SFMS has been actively involved in and taken positions on a number of issues that could affect the practice of medicine in our community. On two of these issues, SFMS aligned itself with other community groups and our combined efforts have resulted in successful outcomes. Here are a few highlights of recent SFMS activities: SFMS submitted an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief supporting the lawsuit to remove the circumcision criminalization initiative from the San Francisco ballot. The SFMS brief argued that the initiative violated state law that forbids municipalities from regulating the performance of medical practices for which physicians are licensed to perform as well as interfering with the physician patient relationship. The SFMS brief was prepared pro bono by the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and was widely quoted in the judge’s final decision. SFMS joined the local coalition to defeat the ballot initiative designed to repeal the City’s “Care Not Cash” program. The public outcry against this initiative has resulted in two of the five Supervisors who had previously supported the initiative withdrawing support. In order for the Board of Supervisors to put a measure on the ballot, four Supervisors must support the measure. There is no longer support from four Supervisors so the initiative has been pulled from the November ballot. SFMS participated in the July 27 launch meeting of the Health Care Services Master Plan Task Force. The Task Force was formed as a result the San Francisco ordinance sponsored by Supervisor David Campos that became effective January 2, 2011. The ordinance requires the creation of a Health Care Services Master Plan to identify the current and projected needs for health care services within San Francisco and to guide land use decisions for health care-related projects. Comments are closed.
