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The "voice of the AMA" – Published regularly throughout the year, the President's Letter informs you about Alberta Medical Association positions on key and complex issues in Alberta’s health care.
Read the November 22 President's Letter
As part of a cross-ministry effort by the provincial government, Alberta Health has invited the Alberta Medical Association to complete a survey on behalf of members. It relates to “legislative changes to safeguard freedom of expression for regulated professionals.”
Right now, the AMA is engaged in more advocacy than at any other time in our history. In the category of fact checking, we coordinated yesterday with section experts to respond to comments made by the premier in a news conference.
Here is AMA Fact Checkup – Issue 2. In this issue, we check and correct government on statements they have made.
Comments on the most recent President's Letter are enabled and welcome. You may also contact the AMA President by email at [email protected].
Below you will find previous issues of The President's Letter. For older issues no longer on the website, contact us.
The termination of our master agreement is an outrageous action that must be challenged. Government is putting physicians and patients at risk. The AMA Board met last night and will meet again Sunday. We are reaching out to all sections and zone medical staff associations to discuss: legal options; plans for engaging the public; the results of our surveys (“Yes” patients overwhelmingly value their time with their doctor and feel that sometimes more is needed; “No” patients don’t agree with the tearing up of contracts); and next steps needed to get government’s attention.
write to you today with great concern for our public health care system in Alberta. Today, the Minister of Health announced that government is ending its master agreement with physicians and enacting the 11 consultation proposals they tabled in November of last year. I wanted to share with you the following statement that we have issued in response.
On January 31, I wrote to inform members that our negotiations with government were moving to mediation. Unfortunately, that voluntary mediation process was not successful.
In my President’s Letter last Friday, I shared our negotiations objectives and what we consider to be key requirements for reaching a deal with government: Better information – government is using misleading physician payment figures Clear vision required – a lot of ideas out there, they need to be brought into focus; Provincial physician compensation strategy – essential for true system improvement; A way to deal fairly with physician supply and control practitioner ID numbers. Today I would like to focus on the first requirement: better information.
As reported last week, Alberta Health and the AMA have brought in a mediator to assist with negotiations. There is still a long way to go, but I believe it is positive that both parties are doing what they can to reach an agreement.
The 57 recommendations in the Alberta Health Services Performance Review are a compendium of cost-cutting opportunities that purport to improve value in health care by either reducing cost with no impact on quality of care, or by reducing cost and improving quality. It’s an interesting concept. We can understand the exercise of looking at the current state and seeking efficiencies; the report provides many ideas to consider. The picture is still incomplete, though, if we don’t also look at what the health care system needs to deliver for patients today and in the future.
Today government released the long-awaited Ernst & Young summary report of Alberta Health Services Performance Review. We have had a little time to review it, but much more time will be required given the scope and the potential implications.
Our negotiations with government are moving to a new stage. We have been at the negotiating table since November 2019. While we have seen some advances in recent weeks, both sides have agreed that discussions would benefit from mediation. A mutually agreed upon mediator has been appointed this week with the first mediated discussion occurring today. Meetings are currently scheduled to the end of February.
Within the set of 11 insured services consultation proposals that Alberta Health provided to the AMA on November 14, proposal 8 plans to eliminate some stipends that are currently paid to physicians practicing in AHS programs.
I will provide you with updates on discussions with government and negotiations frequently in the weeks ahead.