"We can't recruit and we can't retain," says Saint John FP Michael Simon, secretary of the GP section within the New Brunswick Medical Society. "We can't fill vacancies and patients are becoming orphaned."

Poor pay and long hours are at the heart of the problem. Currently, the government pays only $20 for an office visit. This is 33% less than the $26.50 Ontario doctors are paid for an intermediate visit, the most common type of office visit in that province. Last year, as contract negotiations reopened, the FPs asked for a 30% fee increase; the government offered 1%.

Earlier this year, more than half of the province's FPs met to discuss the "deteriorating situation" and then launched an awareness campaign to garner public support. In mid-September, over half of the province's FPs shut their offices for a "study day."

"We finally said 'enough is enough,'" says Simon. "Not one patient expressed dissatisfaction [over the study day]. I got faxes congratulating me."