- Joined
- Feb 7, 2012
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Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on the OMA and Ontario government's negotiations failure. If you're interested check out this article:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/04/24/ontario-oma-negotiations.html
Basically: the government is in a ton of debt so naturally they start cutting down important services like education and medicine. They are trying to save around 1 billion dollars in physicians wages and other medical cut backs over the next 4 years. Normally this wouldn't bother me considering the current economic situation (the money has to come from somewhere) but this is the same government that wasted 1 billion dollars a few years ago in that e-health scandal:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2009/10/07/ehealth-auditor.html
Possible effects: Although nothing is certain at this point (the OMA is a very powerful lobbying group and no agreement has been reached yet), there will possibly be salary clawbacks (they take a certain percentage from physician wages after billing) and even a potential provincial salary cap meaning that the government allocates a fixed amount of money for all the docs in Ontario so that more docs = less pay per doc. This may be an important factor for those taking out a serious amount of debt to study in Ireland and UK.
It is still very early in the process so its not something to be worried about just yet although it is a matter to keep an eye on as there may be additional adverse effects on IMGs. This isn't a warning of any kind, just a consideration to take as this has happened in the past and things didn't work out so great for Ontario physicians and IMGs.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/04/24/ontario-oma-negotiations.html
Basically: the government is in a ton of debt so naturally they start cutting down important services like education and medicine. They are trying to save around 1 billion dollars in physicians wages and other medical cut backs over the next 4 years. Normally this wouldn't bother me considering the current economic situation (the money has to come from somewhere) but this is the same government that wasted 1 billion dollars a few years ago in that e-health scandal:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2009/10/07/ehealth-auditor.html
Possible effects: Although nothing is certain at this point (the OMA is a very powerful lobbying group and no agreement has been reached yet), there will possibly be salary clawbacks (they take a certain percentage from physician wages after billing) and even a potential provincial salary cap meaning that the government allocates a fixed amount of money for all the docs in Ontario so that more docs = less pay per doc. This may be an important factor for those taking out a serious amount of debt to study in Ireland and UK.
It is still very early in the process so its not something to be worried about just yet although it is a matter to keep an eye on as there may be additional adverse effects on IMGs. This isn't a warning of any kind, just a consideration to take as this has happened in the past and things didn't work out so great for Ontario physicians and IMGs.