Government decision will harm doctor recruitment

As a newly practicing hematologist in Cape Breton, I was appalled to hear that our contracts were being unilaterally changed by removing mention of the Master Agreement contract.

I was also shocked to hear that access to Doctors Nova Scotia (DNS) benefits and support programs could be impacted.

In the pursuit of medicine, I’ve dedicated 13 years toward postsecondary education. In fact, I delayed starting a family until I was finally finished my studies at Dalhousie University. Along with my husband, we are finally expecting our first child in early December.

However, the possibility of not having access to a very basic benefits program is frightening. My medical and dental benefits will not be affected because I am on my husband’s plan through his job as a carpenter. We made the decision to use his coverage because it offers better medical and dental benefits than the program I can access as a physician.

One thing my husband’s plan cannot provide is maternity/ parental leave. Like many other young female physicians, I am counting on the DNS parental leave program. Many female physicians are required to carry their office expenses, secretary salary and keep the business side of their practices afloat while off on maternity leave.

However, this must be juggled as we are still incurring expenses yet receive no income during that period.

The DNS parental leave program offers young physicians a small but crucial stipend to help pay some of our office bills during the brief time we will take for maternity leave. If the government were to stop paying for these programs, as it’s already done twice in the last two years, I (and countless other Nova Scotia physicians) would lose parental leave benefits entirely.

Up until recently, DNS had a fund to protect doctors from sudden changes in government funding, but after stopping payments twice these funds have been depleted.

Working in an underserviced area of rural Cape Breton, I can attest to the potential ramifications that this will have on our region. The government’s decision to change contracts without involvement of Doctors Nova Scotia – creating uncertainty about benefits programs – is going to harm the recruitment of new doctors.

In addition to the high tax rate in this province, further lack of government support for physicians is going to result in physicians leaving our province, or simply choosing not to hang a shingle in the first place.

Most importantly, it is also going to become much more difficult to recruit physicians to our communities that are in desperate need of doctors.

DNS represents physicians as really the only collective voice we have. In times with such flux and lack of support from our government, this voice and support is of utmost importance so that we can focus on doing what we have trained decades to do – take the best possible care of our patients. Katherine MacInnes, MD, FRCPC East Lake Ainslie