Ontario doctors rejected the tentative physician services agreement following a roiling debate Sunday.
The Ontario Medical Association confirmed on Monday doctors had rejected the deal by 63 per cent, with 55 per cent of membership participating in the vote. The tentative four-year deal agreed to in July would increase the $11.5-billion physician services budget by 2.5 per cent each year over the life of the contract.
“Members have spoken, and the Board of Directors respects their decision,” OMA president Virginia Walley said in a statement. “The OMA will always represent the will of our members, and today is no different.”
Now, the OMA will discuss what provisions need to be addressed when doctors head back to the bargaining table with the province.
Health Minister Eric Hoskins said he was disappointed in the outcome.
"It is disappointing that the [OMA] membership did not ratify a historic four-year tentative Physician Services Agreement that would have offered the province’s physicians, for the first time, an opportunity to have a seat at the table where decisions are made about spending and the future of our health-care system," he said in a statement.
The release from the OMA added a Charter challenge seeking binding arbitration is ongoing. The tentative offer did not explicitly give doctors the right to binding arbitration, a major point of contention for dissenting physicians. What the province proffered was "co-management" of the health care system.
On Sunday, Kulvinder Gill, speaking for Concerned Ontario Doctors, called the tentative offer a "flawed document."
"Are we too proud as an association to admit that we have rushed into this agreement? Are we too proud to admit that we’ve made a mistake? We are physicians and scientists by background, when the evidence tells us to rethink the initial hypothesis, we have a duty to do so," Gill said.

Ontario doctors reject tentative contract

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