DOCTORSONTARIO TO LAUNCH JOB ACTIONS ON MARCH 2, 2015
(February 17, 2015, Toronto, Ontario) – Dr. Douglas Mark, Interim President of DoctorsOntario (DO), today announced that Ontario's doctors will begin a series of job actions, starting March 2, 2015, as a result of the Liberal Government imposing a deal on doctors last month. Dr. Mark emphasized that these job actions, which are meant to help educate the public on the ramifications of the Government's decision to go it alone, will not put the health of patients at risk, nor impede anyone from getting the care they need in as timely a manner as possible.
"Ontario's doctors are frankly fed up and disgusted with the Liberal Government," Dr. Mark said. "After a decade of partnering with the Government to reduce waiting lists in five key areas, and helping find family doctors for over one million Ontarians who didn't have one, we would've expected better. But instead the Government has chosen to make doctors the scapegoat for their inability to manage the province's finances, mainly because historically we've always been an easy target.”
As part of their job actions, family doctors will be asked to set an egg timer or stopwatch for five minutes as soon as each patient enters their office and sits down. Specialists will set the clock for 10 to 25 minutes, depending on the specialty. Once the time is up, Dr. Mark says doctors will be instructed to inform patients that the Government is no longer paying the doctor, even though the patient will likely be taking up another 10 to 25 minutes of their time, and that the cost of the rest of the visit will be borne by each individual doctor. This symbolic act is meant to dramatize the fact that OHIP only covers 47% of the Ontario Medical Association's recommended fee schedule, which the Government has chosen to cut by another 2.65%, as of February 1, 2015.
"The Health Minister is going around the province claiming that the doctors of Ontario have received a sixty-one percent salary increase over the past decade," Dr. Mark said. "Doctors have received no such increase. Patients need to know that this is a smokescreen, designed to distract them from the truth. The Government has imposed this deal on doctors so that they can cut five hundred and eighty million dollars from the healthcare budget. This will only lead to rationing and will put our patients at risk."
Doctors will also be asked to download a form from the DoctorsOntario website, according to Dr. Mark, asking the Government if they feel they can afford the patient's visit. The doctor will explain what the patient's problem is on the form, as well as writing down the treatment they're suggesting. The form will then be faxed to either the Premier's Office, the Treasury Board President's Office, or the Health Minister's Office, requesting approval from someone at Queen's Park to go ahead and bill OHIP. Even if only half of Ontario's doctors do this, it is expected that the volume of faxes may well bring the business of Government to a halt.
“We urge Premier Wynne and Treasury Board President Matthews to come clean with the people of Ontario," Dr. Mark said. "Ontarians need to hear the truth, not more spin. Doctors don't want to shut their offices down for the entire month of March each year, but as a result of the Liberal Government's unilateral actions, we may be left with no choice."
Dr. Mark said he hopes that doctors, at the conclusion of each visit, will request their patients contact their local MPP to express their concerns about what is going on. Doctors will also be asked to encourage their patients join PatientsOntario, a new patient advocacy group being set up by DoctorsOntario. Dr. Mark concluded his remarks by reminding everyone that his organization still plans on organizing a job fair in the spring, in order to help doctors find work in friendlier jurisdictions.
DoctorsOntario is a member-driven, grassroots organization dedicated to protecting the rights, freedoms and independence of Ontario physicians and their patients by promoting sustainable healthcare policies and practices that safeguard accessibility and the highest standards of medical care. For more information, please visit its website at www.doctorsontario.ca.