December 18, 1997
(Health)

The following statement was issued today by Joan Marie Aylward, Minister of Health. It was also read in the House of Assembly:

In light of the recent announcements by the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association (NLMA), I feel it is incumbent on me to inform the people of the province as to where negotiations between government and the NLMA are today.

A joint management agreement between the NLMA and government is currently in place until March 31, 1998. We expect the NLMA will respect that contract until a new one is negotiated. In July of this year, the NLMA presented its economic package to the department. The other two parts of the package included the administrative and human resource components and that was received at the end of October. This is a very complex package. We immediately engaged an independent consultant who worked with departmental staff to evaluate the package and determined that it would cost government in excess of $30 million in the first year. We have since informed the NLMA that we will be ready to begin negotiations early in the new year. We have our negotiating team in place.

Yesterday, a news release by the president-elect of the Newfoundland Association of Obstetricians raised the issue of liability insurance rates and the expected rise in cost in the coming year. Government provided $800,000 this year to MCP to subsidize malpractice insurance rates for physicians. In other words 65 per cent of the difference between the base rate and the total cost is subsidized by government. We know that costs will increase for obstetricians in January and we have acknowledged that this is an important issue to be addressed when we sit down with the NLMA in January. This is a legitimate concern for physicians and government. However it is only one of the many issues which have to be negotiated with the NLMA to reach a new agreement.

The approach by the NLMA is unfortunate in that they are threatening job action before contract negotiations begin. We are aware that the NLMA has developed a dedicated media plan to be part of their negotiations with government for a new contract. In fact, in the December 8 issue of the President's Letter of the NLMA, physicians have been urged to garner public support. I the quote the president's words from that newsletter. "I urge you to no longer make that special effort so as to ensure government sees the problem. As well when your patients complain about problems in the system sympathize with them but urge them to call their MHA's and/or the Minister of Health." Further, he says, "I ask you to continue to take actions to garner public support."

There is no doubt about the value and importance of physicians to all of us. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador are fortunate to have dedicated and loyal physicians providing medical services to all regions of the province and I thank them for their work. Yet we have to look at the total picture. This year we have provided $140 million to compensate the 850 physicians in the province. We provided a new $2.7 million this year to increase salaries for emergency room doctors. We also provided $2.6 million to increase salaries for rural doctors. This funding was provided before negotiating a new contract because government does see the need to address the concerns and needs of physicians.

Government must also negotiate contracts with many other groups including nurses, allied health professionals and the civil service. This is important and will all be done in due course. I ask physicians to understand that we are aware of their issues and concerns and we will discuss the CMPA rates as well as other issues when we sit down with doctors in January.