An arbitrated pay increase has been awarded for Ontario doctors in the final three years of a new agreement with the province.
It will provide physicians with increases totalling 7.3%.
Doctors received an earlier 9.95% hike for the first year, on top of a 3% increase announced last fall.
“This outcome also reflects the mutual agreement reached with the Ministry of Health on key components of the new Family Health Organization Plus (FHO+) model,” states Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman, President of the Ontario Medical Association.
“FHO+ builds on the existing model to reduce administrative burden, address lagging compensation and ongoing efforts to close the gender pay gap. It is designed to strengthen team-based primary care, improve access to family doctors and support recruitment and retention.”
The Ministry of Health also sees benefits in the agreement.
IT says it will increase patient access to primary care and provide stable funding for staffing.
“These investments will also connect more Ontarians to care by incentivizing doctors to take on new patients, supporting the shift of procedures from emergency departments to clinics and strengthening incentives for after-hours care,” the Ministry states in a release.
The province notes that the OMA and Ministry of Health have agreed on new funding measures to support in-hospital anesthesia services, hospital on-call coverage, and other initiatives that ensure patients have timely access to hospital and specialist care.
