This is such an important point that has gone unnoticed. Even those physicians who work in communities that weren’t removed from the “rural” list had an incentive cut on Friday. The health care system is too complex to tinker with. The potential downstream consequences are vast. https://twitter.com/itsdanidiz1/status/1254521389161168896

This RRNP cut was initially scheduled to take effect March 31, 2021. Instead it now takes effect immediately.

On average, each Sundre physician was given an immediate cut of 15-30% of their RRNP retention incentive due to this change being implemented on Friday. We knew it would be coming in March 2021 and were unsure how we would have to adapt our practices to remain viable.

But now it has been dropped on us 11 months early, with no notice, and no time to adapt, at a time when we are already struggling to keep our doors open.

It’s completely unfair to expect rural physicians to provide full-service care in such an unstable environment where we have no idea what the rules will be from week to week. We can’t adapt that quickly to whimsical changes made unilaterally with the stroke of a pen.

It’s unfair to rural patients to keep having the services they receive in their community change from week to week, with no certainty about what next month might bring.

The lack of certainty around the rules of how we are supposed to practice; that @shandro can just change the rules when he wants to; the lack of trust that physicians have after their contract was torn up; all has led to an unprecedented level of anxiety among physicians.

And Friday’s announcement again demonstrated we cannot count on the UCP to keep their word. Remember. @Albertadoctors want to be part of the fiscal solution. In the interests of maintaining a stable health system for Albertans they offered the UCP an unprecedented 5% cut.

The UCP refused. Albertans deserve a stable health system. Rural physicians deserve to know the rules won’t change so they can plan stable health delivery. Alberta physicians deserve a contract. The UCP’s actions of the past 2 months have proven disastrous to Alberta health care.

It is time to admit the UCP's high-handed approach to managing the Alberta health system was a mistake, and return stability to the system so we can get back to helping Albertans through the COVID-19 pandemic. Go #backtothetable. Work with @Albertadoctors to fix this.