Where is the silver lining? Anxious doctors ask.
When Nova Scotia elected a Liberal government in September 1993, a wave of optimism washed over the province's medical community. One of their own, Dr. John Savage, was now premier, and another, Dr. Ron Stewart, was minister of health. However, anticipation soon turned to anger as Stewart took aim at physician fees and hospital costs to help reduce the province's health care budget by $62 million. Last November, relations between him and the Medical Society of Nova Scotia (MSNS) hit bottom. In an uncharacteristically political move, the society launched an ad campaign featuring slogans such as "Death by 1000 cuts" and "Uncle Sam want me. Ron Stewart doesn't." Four months later, the health department and the MSNS called a truce, with an agreement that many physicians consider a positive step. Today the province and its doctors are speaking again, and the medical society is working hard to help define physicians' roles in a new, regionalized health care system. But has the mood of doctors really improved? Last spring, CMAJ interviewed a cross section of Nova Scotia physicians to find out.
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D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005251:Fees, Medical; D009313:National Health Programs; D009674:Nova Scotia; D010820:Physicians / Q000600:supply & distribution; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D012955:Societies, Medical