EDMONTON – The Alberta government and the province’s 6,000 doctors will return to the bargaining table in January, forestalling for the time being more job actions.
Premier Ralph Klein met personally with Alberta Medical Association president Clayne Steed Dec. 22, prompting the new talks.
The association organized a series of rotating closures of clinics and doctors offices and postponed some elective surgeries Dec. 1-10 to back their demands for a 55 percent raise for fees and other benefits. That would represent an increase of about $550 million in Alberta’s medical services budget. The province’s last offer, Dec. 12, was for about $290 million over two years. The current annual budget for doctors’ services is just under $1 billion.
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Early in the dispute Klein offered to meet with the doctors, but refused to do so while the job actions continued. The government then exercised its option to send the discussions to binding arbitration. Steed and health minister Gary Mar said the negotiations and the arbitration process will continue concurrently, but both expressed optimism the talks will be successful.
Before the Dec. 22 meeting in Calgary, the rhetoric between the two sides was becoming bitter, with Mar accusing the doctors of playing with patients’ lives and the doctors charging the government’s actions would drive physicians out of Alberta. The association said Alberta is 1,300 doctors short of what it needs, forcing long hours for physicians and long waits for patients, especially in rural areas.
There were no serious incidents reported from the AMA job actions, which began with the closure of rural clinics Dec. 1.
Meanwhile in Saskatchewan, the government announced Dec. 21 that doctors’ fees will rise nine percent over the next three years, above the present provincial payments to physicians that total $271 million. Millions more will also be put into recruitment and retention of rural physicians and specialists, continuing education and insurance coverage for doctors. By 2002-2003, Saskatchewan will be paying $309 million to its doctors.
The president of the Saskatchewan doctors association, Dr. Martin Vogel, said the deal is “fair and reasonable.”
