UCP tells doctors to ‘stop playing games’ over pay
Government fires salvo at physicians, warns sunshine list will be created
EDMONTON Health Minister Tyler Shandro is threatening to create a sunshine list revealing doctors’ pay as an Alberta Medical Association (AMA) survey shows 42 per cent of physicians are considering leaving the province.
It’s the latest salvo in a battle between the minister and the province’s doctors over Shandro’s decision — after contract negotiations unravelled in February — to unilaterally implement changes to the way physicians are paid.
In a statement Friday morning after the doctors survey was made public, Shandro said the AMA needs to “stop playing games,” and questioned the accuracy of the report.
“Since Albertans should know the facts, the government is also exploring introducing physician compensation transparency, as exists for public servants in Alberta and physicians in a number of other provinces,” Shandro said.
The AMA survey shows 42 per cent of the doctors in the province are considering a move or have made plans to work elsewhere because of changes in funding. The survey notes that 87 per cent of Alberta physicians will be making changes to their practice as a result of the new funding framework.
Funding changes include cutting what doctors could bill the government for patient visits over 15 minutes, removing overhead costs from billing outside a physician’s clinic, and capping the number — at 65 — of patient encounters a doctor could bill for in a day.
The AMA says that in the months since negotiations broke down, the relationship between doctors and the government have reached “historic lows.”
“I think that these numbers reflect how hostile and toxic the environment is becoming,” said Dr. Christine Molnar, president of the AMA. “Physicians are very unhappy, many of their practices are not viable and on top of that they feel devalued in spite of all the efforts that they’ve put forward to help others.”
Premier Jason Kenney supported plans to consider a sunshine list at a press conference Friday, calling the AMA report a scare tactic.
“I really have to ask, why would a physician choose to … leave Alberta to go to a province where they will be paid substantially less, where they would pay substantially higher income taxes, and in the case of B.C. and Ontario would also encounter a higher cost of living?” he said.
Molnar said Alberta doctors are paid slightly more than the rest of the country but added that’s the same for most industries in the province. She said the doctors are considering leaving because they don’t feel valued or supported — not because of money.
“And he’s telling you we’re playing games. You know, isn’t that typical of the reason that doctors are leaving? They’re not being listened to. They’re not being supported, they’ve been diminished, they’ve been devalued and even during COVID, they have not been supported in this province,” she said.
The survey found 34 per cent of respondents said they may retire early or leave the profession altogether and 48 per cent are looking at changing the way they offer services.
NDP health critic David Shepherd pointed out that doctors offered to take a five per cent pay cut across the board but the government turned them down. Now they are willing to go somewhere else even if it means a higher cost of living or less money.
“They will at least be respected. They will have a secure contract and they will be able to provide the quality of care that they believe their patients deserve,” he said.
The government’s sunshine list — more formally known as the salary and severance disclosure table — is available online. It lists high-paid government employees’ salary, cash benefits and non-cash benefits.
It’s unclear how the government would create a similar list for doctors since they are not paid a salary. The health ministry does track how much doctors bill but that number would not represent a doctor’s take-home pay since doctors are expected to use that money to cover the overhead costs of running their offices including paying for the building, equipment and staff.
Molnar said family doctors in smaller communities have overhead costs of between 40 and 50 per cent while specialists like those who do diagnostic imaging can have overhead costs of around 70 per cent.
She said creating a sunshine list would not solve the problems between Shandro and doctors.
“We need a fair negotiated agreement with government. We need to work with government to achieve reasonable goals for the healthcare system in Alberta and we need to do that together. This doesn’t bring us closer.”