Tyee: To Save Big Health Dollars, Put Doctors on Salary

A Canadian nurse says that to reduce medical costs and waste, we need to put doctors on a salary. Link

"As a retired nurse who has seen first hand the health system's inner workings, I propose a different reading of rising costs, and a different way to cut them:

Let's take the business out of medicine and put the doctors on salary.

I offered this same advice last year when the provincial government conducted a "Conversation on Health" survey, during which many people voiced their opinions and solutions. Here is my logic.

Pulling in patients

The Ministry of Health itself points the finger at the rising costs of rates paid to physicians and the increased usage of lab and x-rays services. Such costs rose by a whopping seven per cent in 2007, and have continued to escalate at an alarming rate.

Having worked in a medical clinic, I saw the physician spend an inordinate amount of time and energy figuring out how to get paid more from MSP. It seemed to me that if the business were removed from his practice, his time would have been spent practicing medicine, and everyone would benefit from it.

Needless to say, my voice is barely a whisper in the grand scheme of things. We need someone who has the courage and vision to face down the Canadian and American Medical Associations and save our health care system from extinction. Where is Tommy Douglas when we need him?"