The president of the Ontario Medical Association is worried fee cuts to doctors will make Ontario less competitive for recruiting and retaining physicians.
In the provincial budget released earlier this year, the Ontario government laid out plans to place a wage freeze on doctors to help fund more nurses, home care and mental health services.
But with 927,000 Ontarians without a family doctor, OMA president Stewart Kennedy said a wage freeze could make doctors look outside of the province for work.
“We have 700 new doctors come into the province this year and if we’re not in the competitive market – and we compete with the United States and we compete with other provinces – certainly we’re concerned about losing those doctors to outside areas and we trained them here in Ontario,” he said.
“Even in Northern Ontario, we know the waiting lists are far too long for many of the specialties and some family practices,” Kennedy added.
Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews issued a statement on Friday stating the AMA is resisting a real wage freeze and that Ontario doctors are the highest paid in the country, making an average of $385,000 a year.
“The OMA wants you to believe that either they get another increase, or doctors will leave Ontario.
“That’s a false choice. The real choice facing our health care system is will doctors accept a real wage freeze, or should we make do with fewer health care services like home care?” Matthews said in the statement.
Kennedy said the government is misleading the public and that according to the Canadian Institute of Health Information, Ontario’s doctors rank seventh in fees and Matthews is stating their gross salary, not their take-home pay.
“Each time the government quotes those numbers, it doesn’t take into consideration overheard,” he said. “We’re employers. We employ staff. We pay rent. We pay electricity.”
The OMA has proposed a two-year wage freeze for physicians and Kennedy said they offered another $250 million in savings, which would equal a 2.5 per cent decrease to a doctor’s salary.
Kennedy agreed more home services are needed in the province and that the OMA is anxious to get back to the table and discuss how they can make that happen within reasonable financial constraints.
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