Minister Clarifies Details of Doctors' Benefits

Health Minister Jamie Muir today clarified some information regarding the money that has been part of the contract with the Medical Society of Nova Scotia for membership benefits during the past 10 years.

"The membership benefits clause has been in place since 1992, and is used as an incentive to help recruit and retain doctors," said Jamie Muir. "The Medical Society allocates the money we provide to them for its membership benefits, and we do not stipulate how the money should be used."

The Medical Society established a bursary program for physicians' children in 1998 using money from its membership benefits.

"We negotiate benefit packages with the unions representing other health-care workers, and it's important to keep in mind that doctors are self-employed and do not have the same kinds of benefits that other health-care workers have built into their contracts," said Mr. Muir. "Other health-care workers have defined benefits in their contracts; doctors do not."

In the most recent agreement between the department and the medical society, the funding for membership benefits was capped at $4 million per year, or about one per cent of the total cost of the contract each year.