SUNDRE — As pleased as a local physician is that an agreement between the provincial government and the Alberta Medical Association (AMA) has been ratified, he said plenty of work remains on the proverbial road ahead toward rebuilding not only the relationship with the government, but especially a level of trust.
Responding to questions from the Albertan following the government’s announcement that a little more than 70 per cent of physicians who voted were in favour of the new framework, Dr. Bill Ward, who is among the team at Greenwood Family Physicians, expressed a level of skepticism.
“I’m not sure how well it’s going to really work,” Ward said during a phone interview.
“You’ve got such a big doctor shortage across the whole of Canada that I’m not really sure whether or not this is going to make a significant difference,” he said.
“It’s going to take some time before the doctors feel that they can actually trust the politicians again. It’s not really making Alberta any more attractive.”
Ward remembers all too well the UCP’s decision to shortly after forming government in 2019 grant itself the power to tear up an existing contract with the AMA rather than wait until the binding agreement expired before negotiating new terms.
- RELATED: Sundre clinic stabilizing following doctors' departures
- RELATED: Sundre physician loses trust in government
“Why should doctors actually come and sign up to work for a government which actually still has the ability to tear up a contract anyway,” said Ward.
In its Sept. 29 press release, the provincial government also announced its intention to repeal the section of the Alberta Health Care Insurance Act that gives it the ability to terminate compensation-related agreements, while the association in response will stop pursuing a lawsuit against the government without seeking costs.
Asked whether the government deserves any kind of credit or accolades for attempting to put out a fire that it lit in the first place, he replied “no” and added following a brief pause “and quite honestly, I’ll believe it when they repeal it.”
Repealing the power to tear up contracts that the UCP arguably should never have even given itself must be prioritized or else run the risk of casting doubts on the government’s sincerity, he said.
“If they don’t do it as one of their first bits of business – because it doesn’t take very long – then it’s actually just going to confirm that really, they can’t be trusted to work with,” he said.
And that steady erosion of trust over the past few years will not be undone overnight even with an agreement in place, he said.
“It’s not going to make Alberta any more attractive; not until they’ve proven that they can actually start to work more effectively and practically with doctors,” he said.
“And there have been lots of doctors leaving Alberta despite what the government says.”
Recognizing that statistically speaking there is a physician shortage throughout the whole country, Ward said recruitment efforts will remain challenging.
“You’ve got to try and start attracting people back,” he said. “And that’s always a lot more difficult than sort of frightening them away.”
Sundre had 12 doctors prior to the tenure of former Minister of Health Tyler Shandro, who in 2021 was re-shuffled as minister of Labour and Immigration before being appointed Justice minister in 2022.
“We’re now down to seven,” said Ward.
Recognizing that his counterparts at the Moose & Squirrel Medical Clinic were able to find a nurse practitioner as well as a physician’s assistant, he added, “they’re not doing everything that the doctors can do.”
While he is prepared for the task at hand of getting back to work now that the years-long dispute is in the rear-view mirror with a new agreement in place, Ward said the government has to demonstrate it is also willing to do the same.
“We’ve got things to do, we’ve got patients to care for,” he said. “But the government has to show now that it is actually going to be trustworthy and we can actually start trying to get things rebuilt.”
