President's Letter
Dear Members:
I am writing this evening to provide an update on the various stipend programs that are due to end on March 31, 2022 or shortly thereafter.
The AMA has continued to raise stipends, AHS overhead charges and other issues with Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services with the goal of bringing all aspects of compensation to the broader negotiations table so they can be dealt with through a comprehensive physician compensation framework. To do this, however, both parties needed to agree to not make any changes to the status quo while negotiations are occurring.
Negotiations continue and based on recent conversations with AH, there is now agreement that there will be no changes – planned or otherwise – to stipends come March 31. We intend to make a joint announcement with AH about this, and other things, this week. We will provide further details in the announcement, but due to the urgency caused by the approaching March 31 deadline, we wanted to make members aware of this pause as soon as possible.
Please keep an eye out for further information this week. In the meantime, please get in touch if you have any questions or comments to share: [email protected].
Sincerely,
Vesta Michelle Warren, MD, CCFP, FCFP
President, Alberta Medical Association