Fred Payton
Prince Albert Historical Society
In February of this year, the Honourable Steven Guilbault, Minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced the designation of the Saskatchewan Doctors’ Strike of 1962 as an event of national historic significance under Parks Canada’s National Program of Historical Commemoration.
When the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Act, 1961 took effect on July 1, 1962, most doctors in Saskatchewan withdrew their services for twenty-three days. Known as the Doctors’ Strike, it exemplified the tension between increased government intervention in the health care system and the doctors’ professional independence, as well as between the status of doctors as entrepreneurs and the rights of patients to affordable medical care.
In 1961, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation government of Saskatchewan introduced legislation to provide publicly funded medical services, legislation which the provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons opposed. Numerous meetings between the College and the Government prior to the implementation of the Act on July 1 failed to resolve the issues which the College found to be unacceptable. Thus, when the Act became effective, most of the province’s doctors withdrew their services.
Most offensive to the College was Section 49, which gave the Medical Commission established by the Government the right for doing such things as setting rates of payment, method of payment, conditions upon which services may be provided, and the information which the Commission would be able to obtain regarding both the beneficiary and the physician. Subsection Ten would allow the Commission to make regulations prescribing the terms and conditions on which physicians and other persons may provide insured services to beneficiaries. In other words, the College felt that the Government was interfering with their independence.
Supporters of those who were in favour of the Act, and those who opposed it, held meetings and made comments which fueled the division between the College and the Government. Doctors opposed to it, as well as members of the public, held public information sessions. Committees were struck, such as the Keep Our Doctors committee. In the Prince Albert area, meetings were held in Wakaw, Shellbrook, Canwood, and elsewhere with local doctors and lawyers such as Jim Sanderson and Clyne Harradence taking the stage. The lone voice in favour of the Act in the Prince Albert area, Orville Hjertaas, was joined on stage at a meeting in Canwood by a young Prince Albert teacher, Dick Spencer.
Across the province, numerous doctors indicated their displeasure with the Act by leaving the province, or by indicating that they would leave if the Act was not repealed or, at least, rewritten. Those who favoured the Act, like the executive of the CCF in Cumberland constituency, showed their displeasure with the members of the College by passing a motion to bring a resolution to the party’s next conference that the College lose its right to license doctors and given to the University of Saskatchewan. This, they felt, would protect those doctors who were supportive of the Act.
The withdrawal of services came into effect on July 1, at the same time that the Act came into effect. The Government announced that as of July 2nd, only two hospitals within the Province were closed (Cutknife and LeRoy). Thirty-four “first aid” stations were functioning in other hospitals, and thirty-nine hospitals were open with doctors either in attendance or on call. This was a result of the emergency plan which the College had arranged to cover off medical care during the withdrawal of services. Doctors were working, without pay, on rotations of forty-eight hours.
On July 4th, the Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert had 90 patients at a time when they would normally have 120. The Holy Family Hospital had 80 patients when they would normally have 100. Shellbrook had 3 patients when they would normally have 15.
The Community Clinic had opened on July 3rd in the Holmes Block at the corner of 8th Street and 1st Avenue East. Orville Hjertaas was the medical director. As of July 4th, he had the support of Allan Adelman, who had arrived from Ontario. Pictures on the front page of the July 3rd Daily Herald showed an empty waiting room at the Victoria Hospital, while the one of the Community Clinic showed a full waiting room.
Other communities, such as Saskatoon and Regina, had followed the Prince Albert example and opened similar facilities. The Clinics were incorporated under the Co-operative Societies, rather than under the Medical and Hospital Benefits Association Act.
The Federal government did not get involved in the Saskatchewan health care crisis, although they maintained a watchful eye on the situation. The Diefenbaker government had appointed Saskatchewan’s Chief Justice, Emmett Hall, to chair a royal commission in 1961 to make recommendations regarding ways to provide Canadians with top quality health care. The federal administrators were, as a consequence, interested in how things were being implemented in Saskatchewan.
In a July 5th article by Nestor Hryciuk, the Daily Herald’s city editor, entitled “People Caught in Squeeze Play”, the impact of the doctors’ strike was delineated. He noted that arguments and the possibility of threats had resulted in some city doctors to change their licence plate numbers. Rugs and other precious household articles had been removed from areas near the windows of their homes, as they were concerned that malicious items might be thrown through those windows. He also mentioned a rift between doctors, and criticism of Orville Hjertaas for putting politics ahead of professional ideals had resulted in the termination of a partnership formed in 1945.
Some local doctors left the province, while others had their house up for sale should they feel the need to leave. There were some layoffs of nurses at the doctors’ clinics, although the Victoria Hospital had hired additional nurses and clerical staff, while the Holy Family Hospital was employing one additional nurse. Hryciuk noted that there was a belief that the impasse could have been averted if the doctors and the Government had been willing to “lose face” and accept compromise.
In an interview twenty years after the strike, Orville Hjertaas noted how it had been not only him, but his family who were ostracized at the time of the implementation of the Act. Although most of the “bad blood” had been overcome by then, he noted that there were still individuals who held his position against him and his family, including his children.
Prince Albert did not, however, face the same antagonism as occurred in Swift Current. Additional police patrols were introduced in that community after letters from a group calling itself the Swift Current Citizens Safety Committee sent letters to the local doctors threatening them and members of their families should they not return to provision of service. The doctors moved their family members from the community, only returning them after the strike had been settled.
The Keep Our Doctors committees throughout the province organised a cavalcade to Regina on July 11th to protest at the Legislative Assembly. About 200 cars left from Prince Albert, including merchants who closed their stores and dentists who closed their practices. Anywhere from 4,000 to 15.000 were estimated to have attended, although the Premier indicated that he thought that there were only about 1,500. Due to the illness of the provincial leader of the Keep Our Doctors committees, Rod Thomson of Prince Albert ended up acting as the provincial chairman.
Telegrams, petitions, and demonstrations against the Act did not move the Government to show any willingness to rescind or modify the legislation. They refused to recall the Legislature, even under the stress of the doctors’ withdrawal of service. It was not until the chairman of the College of Physicians and Surgeons addressed the provincial CCF convention that a decision was made to recall the Legislature.
In his address on July 19th, Dr. Dalgleish indicated that the College was willing to withdraw its demand that the Act be repealed or suspended. On July 20th, the Premier indicated that the Government would make every effort to revise the Act to make it more acceptable to the members of the College.
The headline on the front page of the July 23rd Daily Herald, all capitalised and in bold red letters read: Medicare Is Settled.
The 1962 doctors’ strike was over.
fgpayton@sasktel.net
