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Family Doctors Want More Pay, Recruitment to Fill Health-Care Gaps

Posted on: Thursday, 11 October 2007, 21:00 CDT

By Steve Lambert, THE CANADIAN PRESS

WINNIPEG - Canada's family doctors are asking Ottawa and the provinces to spend more money on pay, training and recruitment in an effort to cut wait times and improve patient care.

The College of Family Physicians of Canada released a survey Thursday that estimates 14 per cent of Canadians, or about five million people, do not have a family doctor. The college wants the federal and provincial governments to cut that number to five per cent by 2012 - not just as a national average, but as a minimum in every community across the country.

"The college ... wants each Canadian to have his or her own doctor, but we cannot do it alone," said Dr. Ruth Wilson, the group's president-elect.

Governments could address a nationwide shortage of family physicians by making the profession more attractive to young medical school graduates, Wilson and her colleagues suggested.

The college is calling for enhanced residency programs at the country's 17 medical schools to boost the proportion of medical students who choose family practice. It also wants increased fees and salaries for family doctors to bring them closer to specialists, who take in 25 to 33 per cent more money on average.

"Each of the goals we've outlined today will require a significant commitment," said college CEO Dr. Calvin Gutkin, who could not put a price tag on the demands.

The college argues that having more family doctors would ease the load on emergency rooms and save hospitals money.

"When (people) can't find a family doctor, many turn to emergency rooms or walk-in clinics," Wilson said.

"Accessing primary care through an emergency room not only frustrates people who wait longer for care, but also has a negative impact on the capacity of emergency rooms to care for those who are more critically ill, and greatly increases the cost of providing that care."

Manitoba Health Minister Theresa Oswald lauded the college's goal of a family doctor for everyone, but did not make any commitments.

"I think I would call it optimistic and encouraging, and it's one we should be striving for all the time," she said. "We are on the eve of negotiations with the Manitoba Medical Association, and it wouldn't be appropriate nor sensible to engage in those kind of negotiations in the media."

Like all provinces, Manitoba has already seen its health-care spending skyrocket. The annual health budget has jumped to $3.9 billion from $2.7 billion in the last five years.

In Alberta, which has also wrestled with a burgeoning health-care bill, Health Minister Dave Hancock said there is "some validity" to what the doctors are saying.

"Basically, your family doctors are doing the same work that they've always done. Technology hasn't enhanced that as much as it has for some of the specialities," said Hancock.

"In the meantime, their costs are going up and they can't increase their wages because, of course, we set the fees."

Hancock said Alberta has taken action to deal with some of these issues by setting up primary care networks that employ teams of doctors and other health professionals to streamline treatment for patients.

The college contracted Harris-Decima to survey 2,014 Canadian adults between Aug. 22 and Sept. 4. Fourteen per cent of respondents said they were without a family doctor. Six per cent said they had tried to get one but were unable to.

The results are considered accurate within 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Source: Canadian Press

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