Doctors Nova Scotia was expected to ratify a lucrative four-year contract agreement with the province on Monday night that promises to make Nova Scotia doctors and other specialists in the province the highest paid in Atlantic Canada.
The proposed deal, which is roughly $135 million richer than the previous one that expired at the end of March, is a necessary investment by the province to repair badly damaged relations with doctors and to reboot Nova Scotia’s ailing health care system, says a health-care consultant.
“We are now at a pivot point in the relationship with physicians to be looking forward to a better way, because the last few years has been unspeakably awful," said Mary Jane Hampton.
“It’s a contract that’s focused on stabilizing the workforce and it’s a workforce that today is on very shaky footing. We’re in an environment where we are challenged to recruit into a province which doesn’t have as much to offer by way of back pocket money and a province that has a sullied reputation in how great it is to work here. We really do have a lot to do to build the Nova Scotia brand.”
The Doctors Nova Scotia board of governors struck tentative agreements with the province in October and membership voting ended Monday night. The deal was expected to be ratified and details will be made public Wednesday.
The agreements give physicians an eight per cent raise over four years - a two per cent pay bump annually. The two other key components of the proposed deal bolster funding for the fee-for-service model and more money for specialists. Those investments are built into $42 million in targeted investments in the Master Agreement and $13.5 million of repair funding in the Clinical/Academic Funding Plan (C/AFP) agreement.
But Dr. Ajantha Jayabarathan, a Nova Scotia family doctor, wonders whether the province’s considerable investments are sustainable. She said the added millions would likely ensure doctors are better compensated and patients already in the system are better managed. But she said there’s nothing in the agreements that guarantee better access for the thousands of Nova Scotians on waiting lists for a family doctor or specialist. Nor is there a recruitment plan for physicians and specialists.
"At this point in time, if Nova Scotia doesn’t have a lot of money, what’s the value that we’re going to get for these investments," said Jayabarathan. "What’s the difference this is going to make for all the people on the waitlist?"
The board of governors issued an email to membership after the tentative deal was struck, saying through consultation with physicians, it identified five priority specialties for targeted investments through the Master Agreement.
"Our goal was to make these physicians the highest paid among their peers in Atlantic Canada by the end of the contract," stated the letter. "We have come very close: family physicians, anesthetists and emergency physicians will reach top in Atlantic. Psychiatry and gynecologists will come very close."
The province said it wouldn’t comment on the proposed deals until the ratification process ends and details are officially unveiled Wednesday.
Nancy MacCready-Williams, CEO of Doctors Nova Scotia, also refused comment but said the organization has been heavily focused on recruitment and retention and both have been an important factor in negotiations with the province.
"We’d like to think that if doctors ratify the contract that it will help to attract more physicians to Nova Scotia,” she said.
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