MD resignations in N.L. called devastating

The president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association says a mass resignation by salaried specialists is no bargaining ploy.

"I can say unequivocally that the loss of even one of the physicians who resigned this past Friday is devastating to the health-care system and to my patients," Dr. Pat O'Shea, a St. John's family doctor, said Monday.

Thirteen specialists announced they will leave their salaried posts in February. A psychiatrist in Carbonear later announced plans to leave as well.

The provincial medical association has been trying to reach a new collective agreement with the Newfoundland and Labrador government for more than a year.

O'Shea rejected suggestions the mass resignations were a pressure tactic aimed at the Treasury Board.

"The resignations are not a ploy," O'Shea told reporters in St. John's. "They are not an attempt to get a side deal.

"To lose 14 of these highly trained, experienced specialists is a blow that the Newfoundland and Labrador health-care system may not recover from."

Workloads called intolerable

The doctors who resigned said their workloads have become intolerable and it is unfair the province awarded handsome fee increases to some specialists — particularly oncologists and pathologists — in 2008 as a side deal to the doctors' regular contract.

O'Shea acknowledged the resignations are linked to the current bargaining climate, which has yet to achieve a new master agreement for salaried and fee-for-service physicians alike.

"This lack of respect for physicians is symptomatic of the challenges we have faced during the protracted and frustrating negotiations with government," he said.

Health Minister Jerome Kennedy, who on Friday accepted the resignations while instructing staff to start recruiting replacements, said Monday the government is not budging.

"It is unfortunate that we find ourselves in the situation that we do as a result of these resignations," Kennedy told reporters.

"But our main concern has been and always will be the health of our patients and the sustainability of our health-care system."

Seven of the physicians who announced their resignations Friday work with children. Pediatric specialists are often salaried because they work intensively with a smaller number of patients.

O'Shea said that with those physicians leaving, pediatric patients will have to be sent out of the province.

O'Shea said health managers will have a difficult time finding specialists who have the precise skills needed and are willing to relocate to Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Certainly, it will mean recruitment and retention will be even more difficult," he said.