Ontario doctors say Liberals’ goal of balancing budget threatens health care

Five doctors, members of Ontario Concerned Doctors, gathered at Queen’s Park Wednesday to drive home their claims that patient care is slipping.

Thestar.com
Oct. 21, 2015
By Richard J. Brennan

Doctors say the Liberal government’s promise to balance the books in a couple of years is threatening the quality of health care in the province.

Five doctors, members of Ontario Concerned Doctors, gathered at Queen’s Park Wednesday to drive home their claims that patient care is slipping.

“With a single-minded focus with balancing the budget the Liberals refuse to consider any options other than sweeping cuts to patient care services,” said Dr. Nadia Alam, who practices in Georgetown, Ont.

The Kathleen Wynne government has pledged to balance the budget by the 2017-18 fiscal year.

The doctors and the government appear to be locked in a bitter dispute that is threatening to come to a head soon.

An internal Ontario Medical Association document obtained by the Star shows the association has requested its legal consul to review details of the College of Physician and Surgeons policy on providing physician services during job actions and member responsibilities to their patients.

The OMA says that because the province has imposed two rounds of unilateral fee cuts on doctors, physician fees have been slashed by 6.9 per cent this year. But Health Minister Eric Hoskins countered that they are still the highest paid doctors in Canada. In Ontario the average physician income is $368,000 before expenses.

“Over and over, physicians have warned the ministry the consequences will be severe ... the last round of cuts on Oct. 1 brought many physicians to breaking point,” Alam told reporters.

“These cuts are not cost effective, these cuts (are) recklessly short-sighted.”

Alam was referring to the 1.3-per-cent reduction in fee-for-services introduced by the government.

Dr. Mark Linder, a family physician and an emergency room doctor at Humber River Hospital, said beyond this cut is a so-called “hard cap” on their patient visit budget.

“If they hit their budget before the end of the fiscal year (ending March 31, 2016), which they very likely will, the government has said they will stop paying for patient health care. This is unconscionable,” he said.

Hoskins denies there is a cap, yet says in order to keep physician services under $11.6 billion, doctors have been limited to a 1.25-per-cent increase each year for three years ending 2016-17. While he declined to say what happens if a doctor blows the hard cap, Hoskins insisted that coupled with the 1.3-per-cent cut to fee for services everything should work out.

“All 28,000-plus physicians in this province will continue to be paid for every single service or procedure they conduct,” the minister told reporters. “We won’t ask physicians to work free ... they will continue to be the best paid in Canada.”

Hoskins defended health-care spending of more than $50 billion.

“This year alone we’re investing nearly $100 million specifically to reduce wait times on important surgeries and procedures, cancer treatments and other ... things that are important to Ontarians,” he told the legislature.

Dr. Jason Profetto, a family physician in Stoney Creek, claimed that orthopedic surgeons tired of coping with hospital-funding cuts are moving to the U.S., but Hoskins told reporters there is nothing to suggest that’s happening - as he noted was the case back in the 1990s.

“We see no evidence of that,” Hoskins said.

Meanwhile, the OMA sent an email to all physicians on Wednesday warning that government cuts have resulted in fewer job opportunities for new family medicine grads, many of whom plan to leave the province as a result.

“Recent government cuts are having an impact on the likelihood that new family doctors will practice in Ontario,” wrote the email from Dr. Lee Donohue, chair of the OMA’s section on general and family practice. “With more than 800,000 Ontarians in need of a family doctor, (this is) concerning.”