Battered Doctor Syndrome

Why is there such a shortage of family doctors?

It’s an interesting time to be a doctor in Alberta. (In Canada in general, actually; but I’ll open this little screed by spotlighting my province.)

Interesting, that is, in the sense of the ancient Chinese expression: “May you live in interesting times.” (To be clear, that’s a curse, not a blessing.)

When current Premier Jason Kenney swept to power in 2019, he wasted no time in coming after doctors. He installed the combative Tyler Shandro as health minister, commissioned a bunch of economists to conduct a study that (predictably) concluded that doctors are overpaid, and enacted a law that permitted Mr. Shandro in early 2020 to unilaterally rip up the contract that government had with doctors — a move Mr. Shandro punctuated by marching over to the home of a dissenting physician in his Calgary constituency and berating him in his driveway in front of his wife and kids and disbelieving neighbours.

Good times indeed. And then came the pandemic.

For the past two and a half years, despite working with no contract, and in the face of blatant disrespect from government, and amidst the most difficult circumstances imaginable, Alberta’s doctors simply stepped up to do their jobs.