The association that represents doctors admits the move to suspend contract talks with government was meant to stir public debate.
It’ll also provides time to discuss the next moves with its members. But the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association also says with no progress after 10 months of negotiations, it was time.
The NLMA says they’ve been warning government for years about the current health care “crisis,” a word uttered at least a dozen times yesterday by president Susan MacDonald and lead negotiator Robert Thompson. They say it has everything to do with recruiting and retaining family doctors, and the crushing domino effect every time one of them leaves, which has been happening a lot lately.
MacDonald says GPs are the foundation of the system, yet are the lowest paid in the region, making it impossible to recruit or retain them.
“The whole system is like a stack of cards, and you pull out the family doctor and the whole thing crumbles,” says MacDonald.
Despite that, she says government has rejected any new money to make the province more attractive to potential recruits.
Doctors, nurses, paramedics and other groups are voicing similar shortcomings with the province’s health care system.
Thompson says the Central region is lacking doctors the most right now, but adds the problem is provincewide and only gotten worse under Health Minister John Haggie.
MacDonald, meanwhile, says it all comes down to one simple premise, “there has to be some incentive to bring those people in. That’s the bottom line.”
The provincial government is still being careful not to label the Newfoundland and Labrador healthcare system as being in crisis.
Yesterday, the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association suspended contract talks with government, saying they have no interest in trying to improve the situation.
When asked about the term “crisis,” Finance Minister Siobhan Coady, who is also the president of the Treasury Board, responded that everyone recognizes that there are pressures within the healthcare system. She points to things like blended payment models and rural retention as topics that government is willing to discuss with the NLMA.
She says a “very strong proposal” was tabled at the end of September, which the NLMA has not yet responded to, and notes that government is “actively moving forward” on addressing the concerns they’re seeing.
One concern the NLMA brought up was around doctors in this province being underpaid compared to the rest of Canada.
To that, Coady points to the numbers. Right now, she says taxpayers are paying nearly half a billion dollars for 1,332 doctors. She encourages the NLMA to come back to the table to try to find a path forward.
Meanwhile, the province’s opposition Parties are calling on Premier Andrew Furey to step in and address the situation.
PC Leader Davids Brazil calls yesterday a “dark day” for healthcare and negotiating in Newfoundland and Labrador, and says the situation is both alarming and baffling.
He claims that the situation shows government’s only objective is giving people the services they want to give them, vs the services they need and deserve.
NDP MHA Jim Dinn shares similar concerns. He states that on Tuesday Health Minister John Haggie said that there was no crisis, and yesterday he poured more gasoline on the fire.
When asked what Haggie needs to do, Dinn states that the minister should resign if this is the best answer he can come up with.
Both Brazil and Dinn agree that the Premier needs to step in.
Brazil says that Furey needs to take a leadership role in the situation. Dinn says shame on Furey if he decides to stay on the sidelines, and says he either needs to step in or step aside.
