Canadian Doctors Want Recent Pay Raise Canceled

A group of Canadian doctors, medical students, and residents in Quebec is protesting a recent pay raise as they want the extra resources to be given to their less fortunate peers in the medical field i.e. nurses or poor patients.

The doctors have signed a petition and posted a letter expressing their view on the pay raise. In the letter, they ‘oppose’ the salary raise that was given in wake of negotiations by medical federations.

The petition has been signed by over 700 people, of whom 213 are GPS and 184 specialists, over less than one month. The petition was started Feb. 25. Doctors underlined that they benefit from pay raises while clerks and nurses struggle to make ends meet.

Canadian Doctors Concerned about Nurses’ Fate

Also, poor patients lack access to high-quality health care services as resources are scarce and budget cuts a common occurrence. The letter mentions the fate of nurses and other professionals who have to face ‘difficult working condition’ in the wake of multiple budget cuts over the last few years.

The only thing that seems to be immune to the cuts is our remuneration,

the Canadian docs wrote.

The medics asked for the pay raises to be canceled and the extra resources to be distributed to other health care workers and patients. They want a healthcare system that is “worthy to the people of Quebec.”

• Canada has universal coverage which offers health care based on the patients’ need, rather than their ability to pay.
• Quebec doctors want a healthy population but not as a result of pushing their colleagues to the end.

In 2016, a Canadian GP earned more than $260,000 in gross pay per year. The group that led the latest protest Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime had opposed a pay raise for specialists of $500 million, which the group deemed ‘indecent.’
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