‘Breaks trust, lowers morale’: Doctors criticize Health PEI’s plans to impose minimum panel sizes and KPIs

Anger is brewing in Prince Edward Island among family doctors over the provincial health authority to institute mandatory minimum patient panel sizes and performance targets for how many patients should be seen.A set of draft operational guidelines dated May 30 shows that Health PEI is planning on instituting a key performance indicator (KPI) of 24 patients per day for family doctors, based on an average appointment time of 15 minutes. Physicians would also be required to maintain a minimum panel size of 1,600 patients based on 1.0 full-time equivalent, or face penalties.But doctors’ groups say such a move would damage trust and discourse physicians from practicing in the province. The Medical Society of Prince Edward Island says it plans to take legal action against Health PEI over the proposal, calling it a breach of contract.“Early feedback suggests these KPIs risk making family practice unsustainable, will drive physicians out of P.E.I., and deter new physicians from practicing in P.E.I.,” the society said in its letter to members, as reported by CBC News.Doctors in the province had just signed a new contract with the province last year and the society says KPIs and panel size minimum were not discussed during the negotiations.Read: P.E.I. reaches new deal with its doctors“This was transformational,” society president Dr. Krista Cassell told CBC News last week. “It was a very competitive contract. It really was the best in the country, and we were incredibly excited for this.”On Wednesday, the College of Family Physicians of Canada also put out a statement calling the proposal an “ineffective policy tool that breaks trust and lowers morale breaks trust and lowers morale.”“Exceeding reasonable panel sizes leads to physician burnout and decreased quality and comprehensiveness of care, as well as longer wait times. Furthermore, family physician circumstances vary and panel sizes they can accommodate fluctuates accordingly,” the college said.The provincial Green Party has also expressed opposition to the proposal, calling it “disrespectful and damaging” to roll this out without proper consultation with physicians. “This kind of top-down decision-making from Health PEI and the minister of health is the opposite of what’s needed right now. Our doctors are telling us they feel unheard and blamed, to the point of taking unprecedented legal action. That should set off alarm bells,” Green Party leader Matt MacFarlane said in a news release Monday.P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane stressed that the May 30 document is just the first iteration of the guidelines, and that there won’t be any punitive measures levied in the first year of implementation.“The Medical Society of PEI, and Health PEI, I'm pretty confident that they'll work through this,” McLane said in CBC interview on Monday. “It's change management. It's hard. I understand that change is difficult. And again, without a clear roadmap of where this has been done in the country, we're going to have to work with our physicians to get there.”

‘Breaks trust, lowers morale’: Doctors criticize Health PEI’s plans to impose minimum panel sizes and KPIs

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