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The petition also calls the cuts — which the OMA estimates to total $1-billion — to be a “serious risk to health care in our community and across the province.” The association plans to present the petition to the Ontario legislature during the fall sitting.

The patient’s experience could be that if they didn’t support the physician’s political aim, the physician might in some way be unhappy with them

“In our view, anything that would enlist the patient’s support for a political goal of the physician would be problematic,” said Dr. Gordon Guyatt, MRG president and a medical researcher at McMaster University. “The OMA would no doubt argue that physicians being paid more is in the patient’s best interest — that may or may not be true — but it’s clearly still a political issue.”

The OMA gave no instruction as to how the petition should be presented, although some patients have reported receiving a verbal solicitation from their doctor or being handed the petition during an examination.

A brief statement from Ontario Medical Association president Dr. Doug Weir on Thursday asserts that the petition is “to help answer questions from patients” and that the process is entirely voluntary.

Nevertheless, Dr. Guyatt fears the tactic is abusing the delicate power dynamic between physician and patient.

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“The patient’s experience could be that if they didn’t support the physician’s political aim, the physician might in some way be unhappy with them,” said Dr. Guyatt, noting the awkwardness, for instance, of a patient refusing to sign a petition handed to them by their ophthalmologist. “If that person is operating on your eye the next day, it might make you a trifle nervous,” he said.

On Thursday, an OMA spokesman said it was “insulting” to insinuate that doctors would treat a patient differently based on a petition and asserted that the petition is no different than the many pamphlets, posters and other materials the OMA regularly sends to doctors’ offices.

National Post

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