Details of doctors’ deal stay secret
Four-year agreement not for public release
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/10/2011 (5116 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Taxpayers may be footing the bill, but they’re not allowed to see the full details of a four-year master agreement between the province and its doctors.
The deal, ratified Oct. 4, increases the province’s funding for medical services by $125 million between now and April 1, 2015, according to a news release issued last week. It also boosts doctors’ general fees by 10.6 per cent over the length of the agreement.
The Free Press was rebuffed when it tried to get a copy.
The master agreement is said to be more than 1,000 pages long. It includes payment schedules for a host of procedures, including new tariffs for chronic disease management that the province says will enable doctors to spend more time with such patients.
It also includes incentives to keep doctors in Manitoba, a promise to keep physician pay here competitive with other provinces, and many other provisions.
But neither the physician group, Doctors Manitoba, nor the Department of Health, wants to cough up the details. So far, they’ve only provided a little more than a page of information in a joint news release issued Friday.
“I checked with the department and was advised that the province does not release the master agreement to the public so we’re unfortunately unable to meet your request,” a spokeswoman said.
The refrain was same from the doctors: “Doctors Manitoba is not making the agreement available, or elaborating/commenting on any aspect, beyond what was in the government news release,” spokeswoman Debbie Bride said.
On Wednesday, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the provincial Conservatives blasted the secrecy.
“The taxpayers are getting the bill. We just don’t get the details,” federation spokesman Colin Craig said.
“It doesn’t seem right,” Craig added, noting, for instance, the public can view on the City of Winnipeg website payments to private firms that do tendered work for the city.
Conservative health critic Myrna Driedger said it’s difficult to hold the government accountable for its actions when it fails to provide information.
“I think it’s typical of the lack of transparency by the NDP,” Driedger said.
“It’s taxpayers’ money. It makes me wonder what they’re hiding.”
The government could not provide a ballpark estimate of how much the four-year deal is worth on Wednesday.
“The department doesn’t have a figure that I can provide today, but they’re working on pulling some info for your request,” the spokeswoman said in an email.
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca