{"id":62298,"date":"2015-10-02T13:25:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T17:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=62298"},"modified":"2016-04-02T23:35:30","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T03:35:30","slug":"tories-ndp-warn-cuts-to-doctors-fees-will-mean-longer-waits-for-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/10\/02\/tories-ndp-warn-cuts-to-doctors-fees-will-mean-longer-waits-for-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Tories, NDP warn cuts to doctors\u2019 fees will mean longer waits for patients"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TORONTO \u2013 Cuts to doctors\u2019 fees that took effect Thursday triggered dire warnings from Ontario physicians and the opposition parties about longer wait times for patients.<\/p>\n

The Ontario government has cut funding for physician services by a total of 6.9 per cent since February, \u201cwhich includes across-the-board cuts and a number of targeted cuts that affect specific specialties,\u201d said OMA president Dr. Michael Toth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese short-sighted cuts to physician services will result in longer wait-times and reduce the access to care for Ontario’s patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown told the legislature the Liberals took $235 million from \u201cpatient care\u201d by cutting the fees paid to doctors, and have trimmed over $800 million from health-care spending this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means longer wait times and less access to care in Ontario,\u201d said Brown. \u201cHow does the premier explain to the single, working mother forced to sit in the emergency room all night because she can\u2019t get a doctor for her child? How can they justify that\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Democrats said the government needs to recognize that doctors should be properly compensated for the care they provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government is bound and determined to paint every single physician in this province as money hungry and opportunistic, and this is wrong,\u201d said NDP health critic France Gelinas.<\/p>\n

The government insisted there are no cuts to patient care in its latest round of fee cuts for physicians.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Eric Hoskins said Ontario doctors \u2013 who make an average of $368,000 a year \u2013 are the highest paid in Canada, and are being asked to take a small fee cut to help free up money for other health-care needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got difficult decisions to make in terms of investing in home and community care, mental health services, cancer care,\u201d said Hoskins.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve asked our physicians to help us create a sustainable budget, to accept slightly less, a modest decrease in what we pay them for services, so that we can continue to invest in those other priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OMA said the government\u2019s fee cuts come as the number of new patients in Ontario jumps by 140,000 every year with a growing and aging population, and an estimated 800,000 Ontarians still don\u2019t have a family doctor.<\/p>\n

The doctors\u2019 lobby group said many physicians have threatened to leave the province to work in other jurisdictions, but Hoskins wasn\u2019t worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure why they would close their practice or why they would suggest that perhaps wait times might increase or that somehow access would be affected,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re continuing to pay physicians for every service that they provide. We\u2019re just paying them slightly less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoskins said the province and the OMA went through a year of negotiations including mediation and conciliation before the government opted to impose a new contract because the doctors\u2019 didn\u2019t like the ruling from conciliator Warren Winkler, Ontario\u2019s former chief justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe recommended to the OMA that they accept out fair offer,\u201d said Hoskins. \u201cThe OMA decided to reject the offer and the recommendation of Judge Winkler. We\u2019re implementing his recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Cuts to doctors\u2019 fees that took effect Thursday triggered dire warnings from Ontario physicians and the opposition parties …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":62299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-62298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-original","mauthors-keith-leslie","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}