Doctors blocked from withdrawing services

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) –  Elective surgeries won’t be cancelled across BC next week after a judge granted the province’s health authorities a temporary injunction to prevent anesthesiologists from withdrawing partial services.

Anesthesiologists want to negotiate their own contract with the government and were threatening to withdraw services to make that happen.  They were planning to start next Monday, which would have cancelled elective surgeries in hospitals across BC.

Jeff Rains, the president of the BC Anesthesiologists’ Society, says his group is now consulting with its lawyer about their next move.

“I suppose we’ll just have to re-evaluate the landscape.  At the end of the day, our end goal is not to withhold services from the patients.  It’s to actually deliver more.”

Rains doesn’t believe the court decision means the BC Anesthesiologists’ Society has lost its fight. “The more important thing that came out was that we applied directly to the conciliator in the negotiations between the government and the BC Medical Association to have standing in that conciliation process.”

The BC Medical Association currently negotiates a contract on behalf of anesthesiologists.

The BC Anesthesiologists Society and the province’s health authorities will be back in court on Apr. 18 for a full injunction hearing.  The judge is expected to give a ruling on Apr 20.

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