On Aug. 15, Dr. Virginia Walley, president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), wrote to the association’s physician members: The majority had voted to reject the tentative 2016 agreement negotiated with the government.
A solid majority of 63 per cent had voted against the agreement. That 63 per cent represents 55 per cent of the membership.
Why did 45 per cent of physicians fail to vote?
Because, I would suggest, this province lacks leadership, by both the government and the OMA. What is the point of voting when we expect little positive from negotiations?
The province’s doctors have now been without a contract for more than two years. In the interim, the government has been changing the rules unilaterally. Ontario’s health care system is in a muddle. But there seems to be little interest in initiating serious reform by either side.
Why did almost two-thirds of physicians vote “no”? The rejected agreement stipulated the amount available for all payments to physicians. This amount was judged by doctors to prove insufficient to meet increasing demand.
Ontario’s population is increasing and aging; advances in medical science bring along new therapies. At Health Sciences North (HSN), we saw 58,000 patients in our Emergency Department three years ago, while last year we cared for 73,000. We are admitting 18 more patients per day than five years ago.
The Ontario government is trying to limit its health-care spending by making physicians responsible if demand continues to increase. Why would it try to save money in such a curious manner?
I would guess, because it is doctors who are on the frontline and will face the direct anger of patients, not politicians. Patients may encounter difficulty in making appointments when the budget for payments to doctors ran out toward the end of the year.
Most certainly, the government’s aim is not to initiate the difficult process necessary for fixing our health care system. This is a system designed 50 years ago that is hopelessly out of date and out of money.
The government is willing to sit in silence and accept overcrowded Emergency Rooms, long waits for many surgical procedures and steady cuts to hospital staffing.
The Ontario Medical Association lists its major demands as binding arbitration and reversing the government’s unilateral fee cuts. Why is it not also dealing with a fee schedule that penalizes care of the seriously ill? How about the 70 per cent of our population that does not have access to palliative care?
Folks who were ready for care in the community now occupy 25 per cent of the beds designated for acute medical and surgical therapy at Health Sciences North. Why are the necessary services in the community not available?
Ontario’s patients very badly need our government and the Ontario Medical Association — collaboratively — to begin a radical reform of our health care system. There are just too many things going wrong and too many needs going unmet to continue with our province’s leisurely approach to change.
Dr. Peter Zalan is president of the medical staff at Health Sciences North. His monthly column tackles issues in health care from a local perspective. If you have a question for Dr. Zalan, email it to [email protected].
