Morale of doctors in Alberta ‘very low’

A local pediatrician says physicians are in the middle of a pandemic, and on top of that feel demoralized by Alberta Health.

While doctors keep working through this ordeal, health minister Tyler Shandro has “time on his hands” and there is no support for physicians, says Dr. Minati Devi, pediatrician.

“The morale of doctors is very low indeed,” said Devi.

“Yes this is at a time when the rest of the world is rooting for the profession. This is at a time, when doctors are willing to risk their life for the society.”

Doctors working in the emergency department go to work each day knowing they are exposing themselves and their families to additional risk of COVID-19 — a risk that includes a significantly higher risk of death, said Devi.

These physicians are being paid less than they were before. In February, Shandro announced Alberta was terminating its agreement with doctors and imposing a new fee structure to commence April 1. The new fee structure was to prevent an additional $2 billion being added to the physicians’ budget over the next three years.

Hundreds of doctors signed a recent letter asking Shandro to delay imposing the new fee structure until after the pandemic. Dr. Christine Molnar, president of the Alberta Medical Association met with Shandro last week hoping to reach a resolution, but that was not to be. Shandro introduced the new structure on Wednesday.

Devi says doctors are spending time daily learning, training, communicating, organizing, advocating and organizing patient care during this time. None of this is considered as work and will not get paid by the government.

Doctors on the front-lines will have less and less time to speak to their families and many will be sleeping in the basement to reduce the chance of infecting family members, said Devi. Shandro is not affected by any of this, she said.

Devi notes she has been informed that she will be paid less than she used to be paid when she works at the hospital, and emails were flooding in on all the information and guidelines she must make herself aware of. Then suddenly another email arrived asking her to fill in at the hospital even though she was not scheduled to do so.

“Like every other doctor in this situation, I replied ‘yes’,” said Devi.