President's Letter
Dear Members,
All specialties in our profession deserve due process for contractual discussions, with access to dispute resolution when required. I am writing you today to let you know that there’s one community in particular that is still waiting to see due process: laboratory medicine.
Our laboratory physician colleagues have been without a contract with AHS for five years despite continued efforts to advance one. Our latest offer of negotiations this past fall went five months without a response from AHS. This situation being drawn out over such a long period is even more concerning because Alberta does not have a laboratory medicine fee schedule. Physicians should have the choice when non-fee-for-service remuneration is available and lab medicine has not been afforded another viable option.
Without laboratory services, the system would grind to a halt. These physicians, working hard, out of the limelight, deserve to be treated with respect.
AHS has recently agreed to our proposal for arbitration. We hope this will commence soon, but a settlement should not be so difficult, and it should not take this long. Like payment issues such as stipends, on-call and AHS overhead, the laboratory medicine impasse clearly shows that we need a new approach with AHS.
I will keep you informed.
In closing, let us all recognize and thank our laboratory physician colleagues for their professionalism and continued efforts to serve patients and the system.
You are always welcome to share your thoughts with me. You can email me via president@albertadoctors.org. You can also comment on this letter on the AMA website.
Regards,
fred Rinaldi, MD, CCFP, FCFP, LLB, MBA, MPA(HSA), BCom
President, Alberta Medical Association
"Fate whispers to the warrior, 'You can not withstand the storm.' The warrior whispers back, 'I am the storm.'"