MDs blast 'divisive' pathologist pay hike

A new deal that has meant massive pay increases for some Newfoundland and Labrador pathologists has caused outrage elsewhere in the medical profession.

Dr. Joe Tumilty, the outgoing president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, said a package announced by Premier Danny Williams three weeks ago has caused turmoil inside the profession by favouring some physicians over others.

The deal, which raised pathologists' overall remuneration from the lowest levels in Canada to among the highest and which also applies to some oncologists, came amid revelations through the Cameron inquiry on faulty breast cancer tests about chronic understaffing and recruitment.

Williams has said the deal will help shore up the health care system by making it easier to keep specialists who deal with cancer tests, among other issues.

Tumilty, though, the new package is "divisive" and has prompted complaints from other physicians.

"Right now, it feels like we are being shut out or stonewalled," Tumilty told CBC News, adding that the NLMA has been "rebuffed" in trying to get its point across to government.

Williams and Health Minister Ross Wiseman announced the deal, which included a $73,000 annual wage increase for pathologists for this year alone, on May 22, but without briefing the NLMA in advance.

The deal, which took effect when it was announced and is retroactive to May 1, was the government's response to a meeting with pathologists, oncologists and NLMA representatives that had taken place two weeks earlier.

Doctors did not ask for side deal

But Tumilty said the NLMA did not ask for a special pay package for pathologists and some oncologists, and that while he is happy for the massive raise paid to some specialists, the government's solution has caused other problems.

In a letter sent to NLMA members, Tumilty blasted the government's handling of the issue.

"Had the government engaged us on the matter, we would have alerted them to how divisive such a measure would be to the medical community if not applied across the board," Tumilty's letter says.

"The decision by the government was entirely unilateral with absolutely no consultation whatsoever."

In the letter, Tumilty told members that Wiseman even approached some pathologists and medical and radiation oncologists directly.

Tumilty wrote that they "had been approaching unannounced by Minister Wiseman personally to discuss future arrangements. All of those approached felt surprised, uncomfortable and somewhat intimidated by this kind of unprecedented gesture."

The NLMA, by contrast, did not receive anything directly from government, other that documentation provided by individual members.

Tumilty said the association, which negotiates salary and fee agreements on behalf of its members, has had little success getting Wiseman's attention.

"Again, we're supposed to be able to work collaboratively with the Department of Health, and the fact that the minister of health will not even respond to a letter that I write him, I don't know what else to say," Tumilty said in an interview.

"It is what it is."

Package dealt with 'unique situation': minister

Wiseman told CBC News that he is surprised by comments from the NLMA, and said government was always clear that it would create a package that targetted a specific group of physicians.

"The deal we've got here for pathologists was never intended to be a template for other groups," Wiseman said.

"The medical association was quite clear and the commitment they made was that they would not hold anything we did for pathologists to respond to the unique situation that we had they would not hold us to that for any other specialty group," Wiseman said.

Wiseman said he is willing to meet with the NLMA, but is not willing to reopen the current physicians' contract to discuss pay or fee increases for other specialists.

He said such increases can be dealt with next year, when the contract expires.

Issue rises at Cameron inquiry

Meanwhile, the issue surfaced Wednesday at the Cameron inquiry, which since March has been hearing evidence about flawed breast cancer testing and how officials responded to the crisis.

Robert Ritter, the executive director of the NLMA, told Justice Margaret Cameron that the May package for pathologists and some oncologists was a government response to a well-publicized crisis - something that is not uncommon in how health care is managed.

"It seems to me, if you look at the way things have unfolded in the last number of years, it seems to be kind of a crisis management approach," Ritter testified.

"A crisis happens and then suddenly, you know, it gets a lot of media attention and then money surfaces."

Before the government announced the package, two pathologists had tendered their resignations at Eastern Health, and a third has been on stress leave. One of the pathologists, Dr. Dan Fontaine, has decided to stay in light of the new package.

Ritter told Cameron that the new deal, though, is creating tensions across the medical field.

"The sad reality is that every physician in this province [is] working under very, very difficult circumstances," he said.

"We have serious shortages of physicians on most fronts, and the challenges are tough, and so it's particularly difficult for a physician who is doing similar work to a colleague to find out suddenly that that colleague is making, you know, significantly more money than they are."