Here is the official document from the OMA outlining the future death of family practice.
For those of you that are not physicians on this list, you WILL lose your doctor if this stuff goes through. When you read the section on negation, this means that your doctor will have to pay for ALL of your emergency room and walk-in clinic visits from their base income. This does amount to at minimum $50 to 100 K per year. We are to be held accountable for our patients decisions to exercise their right to seek medical care. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
I am not kidding when I say that I will not be able to practice medicine and provide comprehensive care for my patients. This will shut my practice down and I will have nowhere to practice. Again, I am not overstating the gravity of the malicious intent of this government to scapegoat us. If we are to do anything, we will require your help to pass this email and document around to everyone you know. McGuinty will not negotiate with us and now that he has used his extraordinary legislative authority, he will be emboldened to do it again if there is nary a word of protest from the public. Post this on any social media you have available. This is set to come to pass next April. Your access to care is threatened more than it has ever been.
Many thanks for your support.
Barry Dworkin
NB: The cuts are not 6.9%. Please see below for a quick summary.
We will now be facing a minimum 23% wage cut by 2016. The facts are indisputable. The Ministry of Health has imposed a freeze on the pool physician compensation for the next 4 years. They can spin it any way they want. I have done the math. This will mean a 23% decrease for all of us as a collective group. The effect on each of us will have a slight variation as each specialty and family practice fees will be cut differently over 4 years.
EFFECT OF NEW MD’s
We are expected to absorb all the costs of new doctors and foreign graduates for the next 4 years. There are NET 700 new MD’s joining our ranks every year after taking into account retiring MD’s and MD’s leaving Ontario. There are currently 26,000 MD’s in Ontario. 700 X 4 = 2,800. This means there will be roughly 10.7% new MD’s by 2016. We will have to absorb these new MD’s so our average individual pay by 2016 will be cut by 10.7% to absorb this cost.
EFFECT OF GROWING POPULATION IN ONTARIO
“The annual rate of growth of Ontario’s population is projected to slow gradually over the projection period, starting at 1.2 per cent in 2010-11 and moderating to 1.0 per cent by 2035-36.”
http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/economy/demographics/projections/
A 1.2% population growth rate per year means roughly a 4.8 or 5% increase of population over the next 4 years. We are also expected to absorb the resulting 5% increase in Healthcare costs associated with the 5% increase in population. This does not even factor in the increasing healthcare costs of an aging population.
EFFECT OF INFLATION
The consumer price index in Ontario last year was 1.9%.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/cpis01a-eng.htm
This is the measure of inflation. This means the cost of your office expenses and living expenses will be rising 1.9%. Because your wages are frozen you will be taking an average roughly 1.9% wage cut per year based on inflation alone. Over 4 years this means approximately 7.6%.
Let us add all this up
I am using simple math and did not compound the effect of the growing population and the effect of inflation over 4 years.
10.7% (effect of new MD’s) + 4.8% (effect of growing population) + 7.6% (effect of inflation) = 23.1%
By 2016, Our collective salary will go down by over 23.1%.