Family physicians in Yellowknife are being enticed to stay in town with a newly introduced salary and benefits package. Depending on their on-call arrangements, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board is offering salaries ranging from $130 000 to $180 000, plus up to $12 000 extra a year for emergency department shifts, cash bonuses for being on call and an annual retention bonus of $5000. Benefits include full dental and health coverage plus 15 weeks‚ maternity leave, 4 weeks‚ holidays a year and an impressive pension plan that adds 15% to the value of the base salary. The government will also assume the overhead costs of physicians who sign on. All told, each doctor will cost the health board up to $285 000 a year.
”It‚s a lot,” admits Al Woods, the health board‚s CEO, ”but we need them and we have to be competitive.”
By late August, 7 of the town‚s 18 physicians had already signed on.
”The only way to free up your life and gain control is to go on contract,” says Woods. ”This is an attractive package for us when we recruit. Other [provinces] could use it [as a model] but we hope they don‚t until we get our numbers up.”
Physicians who opt to remain on the fee-for-service system will pay 10% of hospital billings and 30% of clinic billings to cover overhead costs (see www.yhssb.org).