NLMA calls off contract negotiations with provincial government
CBC
The Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association is calling off contract negotiations with the provincial government.
In a media release Thursday afternoon, NLMA president Dr. Susan MacDonald said Health Minister John Haggie and Finance Minister Siobhan Coady have told the group the provincial government won't spend any money to improve doctor recruitment and retention.
MacDonald said the Department of Health also advised the NLMA that it intends to change provincial legislation to remove the requirement that physicians must be members of the association.
"To advance this type of divide and conquer tactic in the middle of our negotiations is unethical and cannot be tolerated," MacDonald told reporters Thursday.
The union represents more than 1,300 practising physicians, who have been without a contract for four years. Negotiations for a new one began 10 months ago, but MacDonald says the province has failed to produce any plans to address recruitment and retention, a crucial issue for the association, which says about 98,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador don't have a family doctor.
MacDonald said the NLMA's own proposals have been "flatly rejected."
"After years of delay, and months of inaction at the negotiations table, it is clear to us that the government has no intention to address core problems in the recruitment and retention strategy and crisis," said MacDonald.
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