More than 700 doctors and medical students in Quebec have signed an open letter rejecting millions in pay raises for physicians in the province.
"We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations," the letter, originally written in French, says.
"These increases are all the more shocking because our nurses, clerks, and other professionals face very difficult working conditions, while our patients live with the lack of access to required services because of the drastic cuts in recent years and the centralization of power in the Ministry of Health."
"The only thing that seems to be immune to the cuts is our remuneration."
The letter was posted on Feb. 24 by Médecins Québécois pour le Régime Public (MQRP), an association of doctors and students in Quebec that advocates for the public health system. Quebec, like Canada's other provinces, administers its own health care regime under the country's universal health system.
To date, the letter has been endorsed by 217 general practitioners, 187 specialists, 150 residents and 163 medical students. BuzzFeed Canada has reached out to MQRP for comment.
In another statement, MQRP denounced $500 million earmarked by the Quebec government for specialist doctors and the group has also advocated for better working conditions for nurses.
"MQRP advocates for the improvement of our public health system, working conditions for all health professionals with better interprofessional collaboration," the organization said in a February statement. "That's how better patient care will be delivered, not by raising the salaries of already highly paid doctors."
A 2016 report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information said that Canadian doctors are paid an average of $339,000 CAD per year, although that figure doesn't take overhead costs into account.
A recent study also suggests that despite pay raises, health care access has not improved in Quebec. According to CBC News, the budget for salaries doubled over 10 years while number of days worked and patients seen actually declined.