Doctors Vote in Favour of Five Year Deal
Prince George, B.C. – Doctors in BC have voted in favour of a new five year agreement with the provincial government.
Terms of the deal include a 5.5% wage increase over the five years ($216 million) and an additional $16 million in new funding as well as existing funding, will go to support recruitment and retention of rural health care workers.
The Ministry of Health says it builds on work being done through their health care strategy.
“This strategy includes providing effective community services for patients in rural and remote communities, including First Nations communities, and timely access to care from specialists including diagnostic imaging, and elective surgeries,” the minstry said in an email to 250 News.
“We are pleased that our membership has voted in support of this agreement,” said Dr. Bill Cavers, president of the Doctors of BC.
“In addition to new funding for key areas of concern for doctors, the agreement provides us with five years of stability during which we can work with our partners to lead in bringing innovative change to the health care-system.”
Similar to other public sector agreements, the government will assess the ability to increase compensation should the economy perform better than forecasted.
The contract runs until March 31st, 2019.
Comments
Nice to have labour peace with doctors and teachers for a few years at least.
Good news for change….
Doctors in BC average about $350,000.00 per year. So a 5.5% increase over 5 years would be an increase of roughly $20,000.00 or $4000.00 per year.
Doctors are actually incorporated and therefore are run as a business, so all their operating costs, etc; are tax deductible. Not sure what they would actually earn in a year but would guess it is in the $150,000.00 or more area.
This contract also provides for $143 Million toward recruiting new physicians, addressing retention challenges in rural and remote areas, facilitating engagement of physicians in health authority facilities, and improving access for patients to family doctors and primary health-care services.
The $350,000.00 per year number might be a little high. Seems $250,000.00 is the average. So, increase over 5 years would be $13,750.00 or $2,750.00 per year. Operating costs run around 40% of the gross.
Hopefully Victoria considers giving pensioners a 5.5% increase also.
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