The provincial government says there are more doctors in the province than ever before – stark contrast to the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association’s contention that we
are in a family doctor crisis.

The NLMA released a report this week calling on the province to hire 60 doctors now and a total of 243 over the next decade.

Health Minister John Haggie does not agree with some of the numbers put out by the association, and does not like the reference to “crisis.”

He says he doesn’t like people putting words in his mouth. If a person has a problem and does not have a family doctor, he would not minimize that. Haggie notes that there is a new family practice in St. John’s which is accepting new patients.

The medical association says an increasing number of people have been turning up at Emergency in advanced stages of disease because of a shortage of family doctors.

He says they have put in a lot of extra resources in health care and he wants to know why that approach has not worked.