@CPSA_CA, I hear you are in trouble. I hear your days are numbered, and as such, the days of doctors being self-regulated in this province.
Whomever of you that may read this...I want you to think on this: the CPSA's official position on disallowing family doctors to partake...2
2...in job action is partially to blame for where we are now (that includes the precariousness of your future existence). By making it so dire for family doctors to take action to represent themselves, you have inadvertently allowed a corrupt govt to take us to...3
3...the gates of hell before we see reprimand from you as being less risky than staying quiet. But, you may counter that your concern is not with the health of doctors' practices, but with the viability of patient's access. This is naive and shallow reasoning...4
I am a family doctor in Red Deer Alberta. Yesterday a wheelchair-bound patient of mine came to the clinic to have a cyst removed off his leg that was causing him lots of troubles. There was no plausible way to get him on a table...2
2...Referring him to a specialist at a hospital with support staff to get him on the table would have cost months if not years in time, many hundreds in specialist fees, maybe thousands in hospital fees...3
3...I created (as best as I could) a sterile field on his lower leg. Then I rigged my equipment tray to be at ankle level, and I crawled under my desk (cramped exam rooms b/c that's what FamDocs can afford) and I drained/excised his cyst...4
Dear moderate Alberta conservatives that are uncomfortable with where the UCP has gone: realize the party won’t splinter while in power. You will not be able to eject the RWNJs until the UCP are ejected from power…2
2…But the moment they do get ejected they will indeed splinter apart. Every day that the moderates and the extremists remain “united” is another day the rest of the province/country sees you as indistinguishable from each other…3
3…The fastest way for you to regain control of your party, and not surrender more of it to TBA is to throw the election. Lend your vote to the NDP…4
3…a vote for @Alberta_UCP is a vote for a party that can’t function/lead in a collaborative process. They can only come together through fear of their leader. ..4
Today the contract between @YourAlberta and @Albertadoctors is either ratified or not. Within this contract is formal structures to allow the govt to set up "relationships" with large corporate shareholder-beholden companies entering into healthcare delivery...2
2...It creates a situation where "docs", where-ever they are in the world, can be employed by these corps, but can only gain employee representation if they can track each other down and get 50%+1 to agree to cooperate on seeking representation (without knowing what 50%+1 is)...3
3...Meanwhile, Telus now seems willing to hook you up with an endocrinologist provider, derm provide, mental health provider, all assuming a physician without actually confirming its a doc, or the doc is actually in Canada...4
Alta docs, contemplating the upcoming contract negotiations with the UCP: As I do my Sunday labs, it occurs to me how HUGE of a backlog we have in getting our standard of care back to where it was pre-2019…2
2… And it is likely being made worse, not better, day by day as more docs leave and fewer docs come to Alberta. Despite me drastically extending my hours of work, the care needs outpace my abilities to deliver…3
3…the care gap will get worse.
What does this have to do with contract negotiations? First, I must reiterate: the UCP has done nothing to earn trust since the last round. In fact, everything they have done has only further deteriorated trust…4