Doctors prepare to finalize compensation package
The province’s doctors — a feisty bunch during the election campaign — are now setting their sights on firming up an $181-million compensation agreement the Tory government offered days before the writ dropped.
Alberta Health and the Alberta Medical Association are “close” to reaching a formal agreement after the two parties signed an agreement in principle last month, said Dr. Linda Slocombe, the president of the doctors’ association.
“I think our goal would be certainly not more than several weeks,” Slocombe said.
The short-term deal, which offered a 2.5 per cent fee increase each year for two years, retroactive to April 2011, and a funding boost of $12 per patient in the primary care network, must then be ratified by the AMA’S 7,200 members.
Slocombe called the agreement a “priority,” as Alberta physicians haven’t had a contract for more than a year.
But other urgent health-care issues linger as Alberta settles in with its newly elected Tory government.
The AMA was at loggerheads with the PC party on several health policy issues, including 140 new family care clinics over three years promised by Premier Alison Redford. The announcement, which came just days after three family care centre pilot projects had opened, unleashed a torrent of criticism from some family doctors, and a public war of words between Redford and Slocombe.
Emergency room doctors also spoke out against the Tory party’s plan to “fast-track” emergency room care across the province, calling it a stale and ineffective idea.
The Tories have also refused to hold a public inquiry into claims of physician bullying and muzzling in the health system, despite a push from the AMA.
The doctors and the government now have some making up to do, contended University of Alberta health policy expert John Church.
“I think the government is going to have to patch things up with doctors because of a variety of things that have flared up, the doctor bashing (claims of intimidation) one of them, the family care clinics another,” Church said.
“It leaves the impression in the minds of a lot of doctors, if the government is making health policy decision without adequately consulting them, if they’re being steamrolled a bit by the government.
“There will be work to be done there,” he said.
In an interview, Slocombe said while the physicians’ association hasn’t always seen eye to eye with the Tories, “we’ve got an opportunity now to look at what’s important and move forward together.”
She said she’s hopeful doctors will be included in medical system decision-making.
For instance, the AMA is involved with a group now evaluating the family care clinics.
Slocombe said she wants to know more about how the new centres fit in with the province’s primary care strategy, and how well the three pilot projects are working.
“Our position is to be part of the discussions and the ongoing future for primary care in the province. If family care clinics are the way the government is going, then we need to make sure we’re part of that,” she said.
Emergency department waits and seniors’ care remain two stubborn issues previous Tory governments have made little headway on, said Church.