By Submitted

letter to the premier

LETTER: Rescind Bill 21 and stop kicking doctors when they are down

May 13, 2020 | 10:17 AM

Dear Premier,

I listened with great interest to the wording of your response today to the question calling out national leaders for their attack on the oil industry. You said that their responses are “not good leadership”. You said, “Leadership is meant to bring us together not to divide”. These words, coming out of your mouth, given their reference to the oil industry, were not surprising.

I then heard your response to the question from Licia Corbella about the breakdown of trust between physicians and the health minister. You reiterated that you have complete faith in his performance and that he has done an extraordinary job in his role. You went on to spout the same skewed facts about compensation, McKinnon panel, Ernst and Young report, etc. And to imply that rural physicians are overly compensated and should be happy with the handouts you have given.

I would respectfully request that you examine your purported opinion on good leadership with regards to physician compensation. Are you as a leader, bringing us together? Is your health minister?

You are missing the point entirely if you think this is a compensation issue. If it is, why not go to binding arbitration?? If physicians are truly as overpaid as you claim, an independent arbitrator would hand them their contract and it would all be over. What are you afraid of? Why are you trying to divide rural physicians from urban, specialists from family doctors? Why are you not allowing negotiations with the Alberta Medical Association? Why are you enacting bills that give you the power to change the terms of any agreement at any time?

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Make no mistake – this is not a compensation issue – it is a trust issue. There is no trust left between your health minister and physicians. There is no trust left between physicians and your government. And this is NOT the sign of good leadership. No amount of throwing new programs and money at rural physicians will compensate for the fact that your government has lost this trust and can change the goalposts again whenever you like.

You claim that you have “listened very carefully to rural physicians and responded”.I know for a fact that rural and urban physicians across this province are asking you to negotiate, not on an individual basis, but as a whole, with our medical association. They know the impact of these changes to our health system. You do not.

Your request to the national leaders attacking oil was, “Please stop kicking us whilewe are down. These attacks are unwarranted and divisive”. As a physician, I would request the same from you and your government. Physicians want to be free to do our jobs during this pandemic and beyond, without the threat of a government and a ministry that continually refuses to involve key stakeholders in the way our health system operates.

Please rescind bill 21. Please reinstate our contract until this pandemic is under control. And please re-enter negotiations in a meaningful way with the Alberta Medical Association. These steps will go a long way towards rebuilding trust between physicians and your government.

Sincerely,

Dr Julie Torrie

Facilitated by #abdocs4patients

Further signed by concerned Alberta physicians, allied healthcare professionals of Alberta, and members of the public

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The views expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of rdnewsNOW or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group. Column suggestions and letters to the editor can be sent to news@rdnewsNOW.com