Doctors sue McGill University Health Centre over rules limiting the number of babies they can deliver

Montreal | Four doctors are suing the McGill University Health Centre over new quotas that limit the number of deliveries they can perform each month, CBC News reported.Drs. Alice Benjamin, Robert Koby, Dawn Johansson and Andrew Mok claim they have been unfairly targeted by a new rule that forces them to refer patients to another institution after they have performed 14 deliveries over a 28-day period.The rules were adopted in June as a "budgetary measure," the CBC reported. If the doctors exceed their quota they could be suspended for two weeks.So far, three of the four have already received written warnings from the Health Centre. This despite their claims that they have already reduced the number of deliveries they attend by between 45-63% over 2013-2014."(Patients) are forced to experience undue stress when they announce last-minute changes at a critical time to them," the doctors wrote of the requirement to refer in their court claim, the CBC reported.While each have between 35 and 40 years experience dealing with high risk pregnancies, they are not members of the hospital's pool of on-call ob/gyn's. Because those doctors are not subject to the same rules, the four plaintiffs have claimed the rules discriminate against them.While those Ob/Gyns do face similar quotas, they aren't threatened with suspensions if they exceed them."Every time [these doctors] tell a patient that they cannot respect their choice to deliver at the Royal Vic (one of the health centre's facilities), their reputation is at stake and they suffer from harm," the physicians' lawyer, Christine Kark, told CBC News. "Not only the doctor, but the patient and her future child."Kark also told CBC News that, for now, the proceedings have been suspended for two weeks to allow physicians and the health centre to talk directly.

Doctors sue McGill University Health Centre over rules limiting the number of babies they can deliver

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