Over 500 Canadian doctors protest raises, say they're being paid too much (yes, too much)

In Canada, more than 500 doctors and residents, as well as over 150 medical students, have signed a public letter protesting their own pay raises.

The group say they are offended that they would receive raises when nurses and patients are struggling.

"These increases are all the more shocking because our nurses, clerks and other professionals face very difficult working conditions, while our patients live with the lack of access to required services because of the drastic cuts in recent years and the centralization of power in the Ministry of Health," reads the letter, which was published February 25.

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Came across this news piece and thought of posting it here, as it is the first time I have encountered something like that.

Personally, I would like to see more action similar to that happening more often. In the end, in order to make something happen, to achieve something, every person plays a role. Of course, highly trained specialists deserve more, although that does not mean that lower level employees are not part of the success. Recently, in my country there have been protests in one of the largest food companies in this area. The company had not raised salaries in over 5 years and in the end, many of the protesters got fired and company lawyers got involved. The company insisted they had no finances for raising the wages, while they also made a decision to pay the board members over 4 000 000 euros worth of bonuses. In this area, that amount of money is over 3000 months of average salary of the nation.

Personally, as a project manager, so far I have had all my raises and bonuses in the last years distributed between my team. I generally spend about 1/3rd of my monthly salary and to be honest, I just do not need more at the moment. My team is working significantly harder than I do, putting in nearly twice as many hours I do, yet when it comes to raises and bonuses, they are the ones, the management of the company usually forgets. I have disliked it from the beginning and thus made such decision.

But when it comes to the topic, I truly wish something that those doctors did, would happen on a higher scale around the world.

Oh, Canada!

for the doctors.

How much were they making and how much was the raise? good on them either way I am just curious.

They could just take the extra money then donate it to those people. But protesting looks good and you get the money.

You and the doctors sound like a bunch of closet Communists. The years of training, job stress and high cost of a medical education deserve high compensation. These doctors sound like idiots.

originally posted by: Metallicus
You and the doctors sound like a bunch of closet Communists. The years of training, job stress and high cost of a medical education deserve high compensation. These doctors sound like idiots.

What is high compensation? So should everyone who has trained for high stress jobs then worked them for 25 years be making what doctors make, wtf makes them so special? Medical malpractice kills more people than guns.

I think doctors make way to much money, I mean where the eff do they get off charging people so much for a visit?

Or making sure you come into the office to give you an antibiotic, will not do it over the phone, They have to charge that insurance company.

Like I said they will protest but they will all still keep the money LOL...

a reply to: Metallicus

Must be doing something right they live longer in Canada in fact most NHS style healthcare systems such as in Canada and the uk live longer then you lot . So moan about our healthcare when your healthcare is better.
Good on the doctors.

a reply to: Cabin

Well, if the tax structure is anything like in the U.S., those doctors could always willingly give back some of their tax-derived salary to the taxpayer instead of trying to punish all doctors across the profession, some of whom may want or need the pay increase for any number of reasons.

But after reading the article, these doctors are not saying that the tax-dollar expenditures should not happen, they are just saying that it should go to other things, like making working conditions better and increasing quality and availability of services to the public instead of paying current doctors more.

And that's a worthy goal, for sure, but in the end, like I said, they could donate their own salaries to things like this if they really were that passionate about it.

Also, this is only in Quebec, not Canada-wide, and what I would like to know is what percentage of the total of employed doctors does this number of pay-increase protestors populate? I'm betting that they are in the minority.

a reply to: notsure1

The average pay for a doctor in Canada is $339,000. In comparison nurses make about $60,000.

Not sure how much the raise was going to be for.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: notsure1

The average pay for a doctor in Canada is $339,000. In comparison nurses make about $60,000.

Not sure how much the raise was going to be for.

Then they dont need a raise. nusre making 60,000. Lol they can all cry me an effing river.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I read somewhere yesterday that the average specialist was making about $100k more than that too.

a reply to: testingtesting

Availability of healthcare is not tantamount to quality of life. Living longer is not always a great thing, nor an appropriate metric with which to argue about whose healthcare (not health insurance) system is better.

So, are you implying that it is the nation's form of healthcare that causes (on average) Canadians and Brits to live 3.1 and 1.9 years longer, respectively, than Americans (going by the WHO list)? Could there not be a LOT more to the equation than just that? And again, how do we measure quality of life in those final years? Is there a higher rate of people being artificially kept alive in some countries versus others? Do people choose to have DNRs on file in some countries and not in others at a higher rate?

There could be a million reasons as to why there is a relatively negligible difference in life expectancies, and I doubt that healthcare styles play a major role in that. But, hey, maybe we could both be wrong and it plays an 50% role in it all.

Wiki

a reply to: notsure1

To be fair $60,000 in Canada is only about $45,000 in the US. And when you factor in that cost of living is higher in Canada then you have to figure that $60,000 has about the same buying power as $35,000 to $40,000 in the US.

a reply to: Cabin

My god man, if you are sincere in your distribution of bonus among your underlings, that is fricken impressive. I rarely see that type of comradery in the corporate world anymore, especially when it is your own money being given out. I can only imagine the great level of respect and effort you must receive in turn. I am almost regretful to learn that still happens out there. I had a supervisor like you once in the time before. My company promptly eliminated his position and then recreated it 3 months later. The replacement was exactly the type of person that corporations love and underlings hate.

Aren't doctors suppose to be intelligent? Maybe even a little wise? They are simply looking around at the state of the economy. They are aptly able to tell what is the biggest budgetary expenditure for the sheeple and in turn, see a huge bullseye on their back. Maybe they are simply trying to get on the other side of the wave of angst that is starting to rise. They could see this as simple publicity and that critical mass will never be reached for this to make any sort of meaningful change, exactly as they are planning.

The doctors have the inside track on how the healthcare system is working. They watch hospitals not have enough money to do basic procedures and push much needed surgery dates out months because of lack of staff. If I watched that every day I'd get pissed at getting a raise too.

Wow, real concerned doctors speaking up. They realize they make a decent living and are worried about others.

If you look at what doctors make in this country you will see that there are some good doctors that are not getting rich, they are interested in helping people. Our whole system here in the USA is a mess, overhead is way too high. We need socialized medicine here so doctors do not have to prescribe tests that are not needed just to supply work for the people who are giving them. We need real jobs producing things needed in society so so many people need to work in the medical trades, I actually did not mind working in a factory, when you went home you were done for the day. I am all for bringing some factory jobs back to America so I do not fear going to the doctor and having him send me to places where they suck out my blood or stick something up my butt just to keep people working.

a reply to: Cabin

There are around 90,000 physicians in Canada, meaning this group represents around 0.56% of physicians in Canada. It should be noted that Canadian physicians, nurses and medical professionals are paid on the taxpayer's dole.

It's to raise awareness of the disparity that exists between health care staff.

I can't believe people are still shooting this down. Can anyone do anything right in the eyes of these forum members?

a reply to: Cabin

a reply to: Cabin

Good for them. Not many people would complain about being paid to much. Perhaps consider donating to cancer charities as well as other hospitals.

Hats off to you!

originally posted by: notsure1

originally posted by: Metallicus
You and the doctors sound like a bunch of closet Communists. The years of training, job stress and high cost of a medical education deserve high compensation. These doctors sound like idiots.

What is high compensation? So should everyone who has trained for high stress jobs then worked them for 25 years be making what doctors make, wtf makes them so special? Medical malpractice kills more people than guns.

I think doctors make way to much money, I mean where the eff do they get off charging people so much for a visit?

Or making sure you come into the office to give you an antibiotic, will not do it over the phone, They have to charge that insurance company.

Like I said they will protest but they will all still keep the money LOL...

I think doctors make way to much money, I mean where the eff do they get off charging people so much for a visit?

It's not the doctors that are charging them. It's the pharma bros that charge the docotors/hospitals and then onto the patients at the pharam bros prices.