Province's pact with doctors 'raises the bar'
Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 12/01) - Alberta's recent rich settlement with its physicians may make it more difficult to recruit doctors for the North, says the president of the Canadian Medical Association.
Awash in oil money, Ralph Klein's government just inked a $390 million deal with the Alberta Medical Association that gives the typical general practitioner a 23 per cent raise.
CMA president Dr. Peter Barrett, said the Alberta deal "raises the bar ... other provinces and territories are going to have to compete."
Barrett was at the NWT Legislature Friday to help honour long-serving doctors in the territory.
Health Minister Jane Groenewegen attended the ceremony and said in an interview that the NWT is competitive with Alberta.
"When the doctors went from fee-for-service to contracts, we felt that the package was very competitive nationally."
But she acknowledged that attracting qualified professionals, particularly to the regions, has not been easy.
Hay River, which budgets for five resident doctors, hasn't "had one resident physician for the last year."
Rita Dahlke, a Hay River physician who has also worked as a recruiter, says that persuading medical students to practice in remote communities is "a terribly hard sell."
Barrett said that there's a dearth of qualified medical professionals across North America.
Speaking in the great hall of the NWT legislative assembly, Barrett said "we are in a crisis right now."
Barrett says that cost-cutting governments shrank medical school enrolments about 10 years ago.
Now, overworked doctors are burning out while jurisdictions to the south engage in doctor bidding wars.
"Morale is at an all-time low," he said.
