Rumors from Ontario radiologists

[tooty]

i've been told that the ontario government wants to impose a salary cap and allow radiology groups to bid for contracts, where of course the lowest bid wins. therefore, there will be a need for radiologists to "stick together."

 

i've only found articles like these with no mention of the above. does anyone have published info?

[Lactic Folly]

http://www.longwoods.com/content/22475

[tooty]

thanks lactic. i read the rebuttal. http://www.longwoods.com/content/22897

 

interesting discussion.

[NLengr]

A huge problem in the system is we have a large number of policy-analyst type people increasingly making decisions about the system, while at the same time front line workers (MD's, pharmacists etc.) are marginalized and ignored.

 

The problem is we have decision makers who really have no clue about how healthcare works.

[spaceprobe]

no, a salary cap isn't good. However, if the government wants to save money, they should look more into cutting fees to make physician pay more equitable....such as what is going to be done to cataract surgery fees in the near future (as you all know, cataract surgery pays FAR too much for the time spent compared to all other surgeries...even neurosurgery!)

 

In terms of going the salary route....it is far more complicated than saying i will read X number of CTs and then stop. I'm sure the contract won't be that simple. Your workload for the day will be whatever is ordered that day. A calculation will have to be done overtime to determine what is a reasonable amount that a full time equivalent should be doing....and then the government will have to hire more people if the actual work load is higher. However, this won't give the physician the ability to stop reading CT scans whenever they feel they've done their "share".

 

As a radiologists, unfortunately, you don't have control over the volume. You can't schedule less patients for your clinic that day, etc....the number of orders for scans coming in is out of your control.

[mavrik13]

A huge problem in the system is we have a large number of policy-analyst type people increasingly making decisions about the system, while at the same time front line workers (MD's, pharmacists etc.) are marginalized and ignored.

 

The problem is we have decision makers who really have no clue about how healthcare works.

 

I'd say the bigger problem is that physicians have little to no interest in actually participating in these large-scale healthcare discussions and decisions. While there are definitely examples of physicians wanting to participate in these discussions, how many actually go out and proactively try to participate in these discussions? The majority are only concerned as far as what impacts their practice/their floor. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, in terms of band-aid solutions within our current healthcare system.