Doctors, arbitration

Re: Doctors vs. Ontario: Patients are stuck in the middle — March 10

If the Ontario government does not want to negotiate, it imposes its will with cuts. Between 2015 and 2016 the cuts amounted to approximately seven per cent.

These cuts were against all doctors, not rich specialties. What would you do if your employer

reduced your pay by seven per cent because they felt like it? Doctors cannot strike.

Binding arbitration prevents the government from making arbitrary cuts and gives them incentive to negotiate a fair deal.

Police and firefighters can’t strike and for this reason they have binding arbitration.

Physicians do not want arbitration to bolster their incomes but rather to protect them from further cuts.

Physicians are upset with the Ontario Medical Association because the deal it endorsed did not represent the position of physicians but rather what the government wanted. This is why the grassroots movement has overtaken the OMA.

People vote and patients are the people who vote so, yes, physicians are in a position that they must get the attention of patients. We would not be in this position if the government would have negotiated with physicians.

Have you noticed that as we approach the next election, all of a sudden the Ontario government finally wants to talk about arbitration? Dr. Michael Song Cochrane, Alta.