BC Blue Book

[Ian Wong]

I'll probably get blasted at some point for putting up this link, but the Blue Book is an official publication detailing phsycian billing for that year.

It is available in hard copy, but has now been converted into electronic format, and made available on the internet (I discovered it through a link from the BC Health Ministry web-site).

BC Blue Book:
www.qp.gov.bc.ca/msc/2000/ (http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/msc/2000/)
www.qp.gov.bc.ca/msc/2001/ (http://www.qp.gov.bc.ca/msc/2001/)

The referring link can be found here:
www.hlth.gov.bc.ca/msp/facstat.html (http://www.hlth.gov.bc.ca/msp/facstat.html)

Ian
UBC, Med 3

[Akane200]

Wah, in BC, all physician billings are made public (including their names with their billings) even if they don't make a lot?

Don't you think that publicly displaying you name with you salary (on the internet) just because you are a physician a little bit too much? Is it necessary? In terms of privacy, I think that salaries of publicly employed people should be published only if they exceed certain amounts (and where there is a public interest to be met).

I feel that the freedom of information is important, and that anyone who needs access to it should be able to get it easily (like via the hard copy versions). But I have qualms about it being so readily available to everyone in the entire world over the internet (you don't even need a password or registration log in to access them).

[xX driad Xx]

It is not as simple as "because you are a physician" - all contracts paid out by the province are public knowledge because they are public funds. Physicians on salary, for example, are not included in there. It is because of the method of remuneration, not an attack on physicians.