NB family doctors say enough is enough

Family physicians in New Brunswick say they're not going to take it any more. About 450 FPs are delivering that message to the provincial government as contract negotiations stall and a serious physician shortage continues.

“We can't recruit and we can't retain,” says Saint John FP Michael Simon, secretary of the GP section within the New Brunswick Medical Society. “We can't fill vacancies and patients are becoming orphaned.”

Poor pay and long hours are at the heart of the problem. Currently, the government pays only $20 for an office visit. This is 33% less than the $26.50 Ontario doctors are paid for an intermediate visit, the most common type of office visit in that province. Last year, as contract negotiations reopened, the FPs asked for a 30% fee increase; the government offered 1%.

Earlier this year, more than half of the province's FPs met to discuss the “deteriorating situation” and then launched an awareness campaign to garner public support. In mid-September, over half of the province's FPs shut their offices for a “study day.”

“We finally said ‘enough is enough,’” says Simon. “Not one patient expressed dissatisfaction [over the study day]. I got faxes congratulating me.”

Then, in early October, FPs staged a “paperwork protest,” refusing to fill out lengthy government-issue drug-authorization forms — a procedure that can take up to 2 hours daily. Just 3 days after the “paperwork protest” began, New Brunswick's health and wellness minister told the media that negotiations had started again and he was confident the dispute could be settled. —