Momentum Builds AGAINST the Ontario Medical Association's Draft Physician Services Agreement

New independent economic analysis shows draft PSA is full of concerning holes and secret cuts that will hurt patient care.

TORONTO, Aug. 9, 2016 /CNW/ - The Ontario Coalition of Doctors, a group of 20,000 OMA family doctors, specialists, community doctors and academic doctors opposed to the tentative Physician Services Agreement (PSA), provide an update on their campaign to stop the PSA and release an incriminating economic analysis of the PSA.    

"Momentum is building as OMA members are outraged they are being railroaded into rubber stamping a vague deal the OMA secretly negotiated after promising they would never give up binding arbitration. It lacks details and is missing key facts.  It hands decisions about doctors, their practice and their patients to anonymous committees and government bureaucrats," said Dr. Keith Meloff.  "Our message to our fellow OMA members is clear: You don't have to settle for an open-ended deal built on a broken promise and rammed through in an OMA process a judge has called 'sneaky'."

Following a series of untrustworthy decisions by the OMA including breaking their promise not to pursue a deal without binding arbitration, trying to ram the deal through in the middle of summer vacation and orchestrating a process the Ontario Superior Court of Justice called "sneaky", the Coalition of Ontario Doctors sought independent third party analysis of the draft PSA.  An independent economic analysis was conducted by Dr. Jack L. Carr, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Toronto. 

"The draft PSA is unlike any other labour agreements in the province.  Would teachers ever sign an agreement with the government which states that if the growth in student population is above expectations, teachers would be required to take across the board pay cuts to finance the unexpected increased enrollment?  Would the government ever ask the teachers to sign such an agreement?  The TPSA is a unique labour agreement and means cuts in physician payments will negatively impact patient accessibility," Dr. Carr said.

Key findings of The Carr Report include:

• The draft PSA ignores the effects of inflation making it more likely of cuts beyond the $200 million cuts locked into the deal.
• Doctors will be forced to assume financial responsibility for increased usage in the system, including costs like population growth and aging that they have no control over. This downloads the responsibility for increased usage from the government to already busy frontline physicians.
• The draft PSA does not guarantee a period of stability and will in fact negatively impact patient accessibility.

"As doctors we're trained to notify patients of the material risks and benefits of any medication we prescribe so they can make an informed decision and we expect no less from the OMA on the PSA. Instead we are told to 'sign here' to get the details later. Accepting second-best negotiations is not enough when our goal is to provide the best in patient care," Meloff added.  "Doctors should not risk leaving their future in the hands of out of touch OMA bosses and faceless bureaucrats.  The only way to achieve certainty for your future is to vote against this agreement and pursue a better way.  If you don't like what was revealed in this report it's not too late to reverse your vote."

Rather than using the membership fees of OMA members to run an expensive campaign against them including robocalls to unlisted numbers, the Coalition of Ontario Doctors is proposing a better way to reach an agreement that respects doctors and their patients:

1. Form a new OMA Negotiating Team that is representative of Ontario doctors.
2. Use professional labour negotiators to create a new approach to negotiations.
3. Include a new and clear negotiation mandate with binding arbitration as a prerequisite.
4. Share a clear set of measurable principles and objectives with doctors.
5. Do not accept fee cuts and underfunding of patient care in critical areas.
6. Start with an open and accountable consultation with the OMA membership so that all viewpoints are represented.

Who We Are
The Coalition of Ontario Doctors is committed to the care of their patients. We are concerned about inadequate funding, access, waiting lists and health care gaps that hurt Ontario patients.

Concerned Ontario Doctors (Family Physicians and Specialists) DoctorsOntario (Family Physicians and Specialists) OMA Section on Cardiology OMA Section on Cardio-Vascular Surgery OMA Section on Diagnostic Imaging OMA Section on Emergency Medicine OMA Section of Gastroenterology OMA Section on Nephrology OMA Section on Neuroradiology OMA Section on Neurology OMA Section of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

OMA Section on Chronic Pain OMA Section on Urology OMA Section on Thoracic Surgery Dermatology Association of Ontario Doctors for Justice Eye Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Emergency Physicians of Ontario Ontario Association of Cardiologists Ontario Association of Radiologists Ontario Association of Nephrologists Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine

SOURCE Coalition of Ontario Doctors

Image with caption: "Coalition of Ontario Doctors (CNW Group/Coalition of Ontario Doctors)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160809_C1815_PHOTO_EN_749867.jpg

PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2016/08/09/20160809_C1815_PDF_EN_749869.pdf

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