Let's talk about family medicine in Alberta. Most clinics are already small private businesses. Bill 30 allows corporations in; like Telus who already owns most EMRs and Babylon. Corporations are not about ethically practicing medicine. They are about profit.
If you were a corporation would you set up shop if you weren't going to make a profit? No? Its just good business sense to want and work toward a profit. So, the UCP are using the excuse of saving money to corporatize medicine. I'm not talking about surgeries here-
that's a totally different ball game. I'm talking about community practices. Albertans, are you ready for your 5 minutes of physician time and paying for services? 'Cause that's where we are headed with corporatization. We see it in all corporations- if profit isn't made,
then productivity has to increase- which means less time for comprehensive visits and continuity of care. Albertans, are you ready for that? I'm not saying that we don't need reforms, because we do. But the changes that are being rammed through are not thoughtful.
Albertans, are you prepared for the consequences of what's happening? The UCP keeps saying they want physicians on salary. Do you actually think this will save money? Salary implies work hours, overtime, benefits, paid holidays, mat/pat leaves, pension or defined contributions...
Right now doctors have none of that. I would suspect what the government's meaning by "salaries" is not what you would expect. I can't say though, because they haven't made any of their plans public, so i can't say whether they are good or bad.
@shandro is also saying he wants doctors on alternate remuneration plans, but has yet to announce information about funding models. Usually before you engage in change management, you have a plan and consider all contingencies. Information transfer about the plan is usually
considered critical for it to work. All parties involved with change need to know their role and how change will affect them in order to get buy in. So far, that's not happening AT ALL. It would be good to know what the vision is for medicine in Alberta. (and just saying
"privitization" doesn't cut it because we already have that. I can say is that most of my colleagues (and by that, I mean nearly all), is that there is NO WAY IN HELL that we would sign a contract (individually or collectively) with this government, as long as the government has
the power to change at will any and all contracts. Albertans, if you're still reading this, it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. 'Cause things are about to get a whole lot worse for your health care.
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