Minister needs a little education: NLMA
The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association (NLMA) says it was alarmed and disappointed by recent comments made by John Haggie, provincial Minister of Health and Community Services, about the scope of practice of family physicians.
In a news release, the NLMA says Haggie revealed in a CBC news report that the provincial government intends to substitute nurse practitioners for family doctors.
“We are concerned that Dr. Haggie’s comments clearly indicate that this government has an agenda to reduce patient access to family doctors in this province,” NLMA president Dr. Lynn Dwyer said.
“His superficial remarks reveal he either misunderstands the role that family doctors play in the health-care system or he has a complete disregard for the value of this profession. Either way, Dr. Haggie needs education on how family practice works in this province.”
On Tuesday, according to the news release, CBC quoted Haggie as saying “the whole big discussion point in health care is around scopes of practice. We have significant resources that could take a big part of the health care delivery away from a physician-centred model.” He further said “80 per cent of a general, normal day’s work for a family practitioner can be managed perfectly well and in some respects with a better outcome by nurse-practitioners, for example.”
Dwyer said nurse practitioners are not substitutes for family doctors.
“We are unaware of any primary health-care model where removing family physician results in better health outcomes,” Dwyer said. “Frankly, to hear this from another physician who should know better is not only disappointing to the physicians of this province, it is also disturbing. The minister of health seems to think that family doctors and nurse practitioners are interchangeable professionals. They are not. The nurse practitioners I know want to work collaboratively with physicians, not be physician replacements.”
The release states that the NLMA supports the move to collaborative teambased models of care, which includes family doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, psychologists, dieticians, occupational therapists, social workers and others. Better outcomes are achieved when all health-care providers are all working together as part of a coordinated effort, it states.
The release also states that, in the absence of government funding for primary health-care teams, family doctors have carried the burden.