PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY. JUNE 25, 1986, WIITBY FREE PRESS Published every Wednesday whitbyBLLMUA -by NI[M.Publishing Communlty Editor and PhnotographyI nc. Phone 669-611I VALERIECOWEN Ihe Free I'ress Building, o-131 Brock Street North, secod Çîass mar Voice of the County Town Michael an Burgess, Publisher- Managing Editor P.o. Box 206. whitby., Ont. Roqisl aton No.5351 The only Witby newspaper independerntly otiied and operated hy Whithy residents for Whitb residCnts. -Silence best strategy for doctors- When the Ontario Government finally passed Bill 94 last Friday it should have been a signal to the doctors that the time had come to redirect their energies to the principle they have staun- chly, if unconvincingly, maintained is at the heart of the extra-billing issue. What is at issue, the doctors keep telling us, is the right to prac- tice their profession freely and without gover- nment interference. This is an admirable pursuit but it has nothing to do with Bill 94. Bill 94 is simply a ban on charging more than the rates established by OHIP. According to Dr. Michael Rachlis, a Tor- onto physician and spokesman for the Medical Reform Group, an association of some 150 On- tario doctors who have been fighting extra- billing since 1979, the notion that the Ontario Government has a hidden agenda is totally un- founded. In an interview with the Free Press last week, Dr. Rachlis said the doctors have been mislead by their leadership, the OMA. "This bill is only about extra-billing. These other things, such as in British Columbia where the government is restricting doctor's billing numbers (to control where a doctor sets up his practice) are not in the bill. These other concer- ns can be addressed in other ways," said Dr. Rachlis. According to the doctor, the Medical Reform Group has been fighting extra-billing because it deters the elderly and the poor from visiting their doctors and receiving the medical attention that is their right. Too often, continued the doc- tor, patients are extra-billed indescriminately by doctors' secretaries because the doctors are too busy to go into the financial affairs of the 30 or 40 patients they might see in the course of the day. Because the secretaries are also busy, there is a tendency to just slap on the extra tab and worry about it later if the patient complains. "There are some doctors who extra-bill with conscience but there are too many bad actors," said Dr. Rachlis. While it may be true that only 11 percent of the province's doctors practice extra-billing, the fact that many of them are specialists to whom patients are referred by their G.P.'s means that they see far more patients from a broader spec- Letters to To The Editor: Whitby Town Council should be given a round of applause for con- structing more affor- dable housing. The 58 units presently being considered are just a start. Hopefully more will be built in the future. Already the demand is greater than what is being built. The Whitby citizens who will live in these units have the right to affordable housing. We can and must make this right a reality. The roof over a citizen should be the roof of a house where their privacy and diginity as a person is a reality. More than half of the population which needs this, are women with children, who are in desperate need. Many of the women will have been divorced or left abandoned with their children to make their the editor way, whatever way they can. Surely we cannot turn our backs on these women who by virtue of their sex and children are kept as second-class citizens. Surely our af- fluent society can help the poverty in our own backyard. It is my hope that the builders will make some accommodation for a child care centre, a common living and eating area so that the residents are able to discuss common problems, seek solutiors, to these com- mon problems and in turn uplift each other's dignity and common goals for a better life which is difficult to do when they are each in their own individual, isolated unit. Sweden has done much in this area. Sincerely, Colleen Ogilvie, Whitby. trum of our society than their numbers might suggest. Something as essential as receiving prompt and appropriate medical attention should not be dependent on a person's financial status. The OMA counters this argument by stating that they have offered to guarantee that the elderly, medically indigent and emergency cases will not be extra-billed but this raises the onerous spectre of the doctors sitting in judgement of our private financial affairs which is unacceptable. Aside from the money, it is retaining this kind of power that really has the doctors all worked up. No other group in society enjoys the measure of power currently exercised by Ontario's doc- tors. If the province has a hidden agenda there are any number of questions regarding the provision of health care they may want to con- sider. To list only a few, the Peterson Gover- nment may want to look at setting up an in- dependent regulatory body to take the place of the College of Physicians and Surgeons; or the right of doctors to refuse abortions as a matter of personal preference; or whether or not doctors should be put on a salary to encourage thorough examinations? Where the doctors take this issue in the days ahead will play an important part in determining to what extent the general public is prepared to allow these freedoms to continue. In the 13 days since the strike began, Whitby doctors for the most part have steered clear of the more radical course taken by some of their peers in other communities. A poll of Whitby doctors taken by the Free Press last Thursday (prior to the an- nouncement that the Liberals -had invoked closure on Bill 94) indicated that less than one third were observing the strike and most of those were working reduced hours. Only three of the doctors polled were prepared to even speak to our staff on the issue and most responses were based on information provided by their recep- tionists. Subsequent efforts by the Free Press to follow up on the poll after Bill 94 was passed on Friday came up empty. The doctors just aren't talking. Under the circumstances, this is probably the only way to go.