“It’s nice to see government and the physicians working together instead of being confrontational,” said Dr. Haggie, who was president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association in 2002 when for the first time in the province's history, doctors throughout Newfoundland and Labrador withdrew their services as a result of a failure to reach an agreement with the provincial government, under the leadership of Premier Roger Grimes, on wages and working conditions. The job action lasted 17 days.
This time around it was former Premier Danny Williams that controlled government negotiations prior to his retirement from politics on Dec. 3, at which time, Kathy Dunderdale became premier and re-opened talks with the province’s medical association.
“(Premier) Dunderdale changed the whole tone of the negotiations. It’s good that this is finally over, but it’s interesting how a change in leadership brought it about.”
The agreement was ratified last Tuesday during a vote at Memorial University’s medical school auditorium, where 220 doctors voted in person and approximately another 180 did so through teleconference. Of the doctor’s voting, approximately 90 per cent were in favour of government’s latest offer. A previous offer was voted on by secret ballot over four weeks, with a Dec. 13 deadline. The outcome was an 86 per cent rejection rate.
“We (CMA) are hopeful that Newfoundland and Labrador will follow the seven or eight other provinces that has binding arbitration available to physicians.” - Dr. John Haggie
“This is a good deal and will definitely help with the retention and recruitment of physicians…the retention incentives at the back end is a great thing and makes sense,” said Dr. Haggie, who added the 2002 deal increased the number of physicians in the province by nine per cent.
Wage parity was of major concern to the NLMA, and according to Dr. Haggie, the new agreement met two aspects of concern in this area.
The new four-year agreement, retroactive from Oct. 1, 2009 to Sept. 30, 2013, provides an additional $87.7 million to the annual physician services budget, representing an increase of about 26 per cent, which will result in all fee-for-service physicians and salaried general practitioners being paid at Atlantic parity.
All salaried specialists will receive the pay increase given to pathologists and oncologists in 2008 plus a one-time retention payment of eight per cent to be paid at the end of the agreement.
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