FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – Negotiators huddled Sunday night in a last-ditch effort to head off a provincewide walkout by New Brunswick’s 1,300 physicians.

The province’s doctors are planning to shut their office doors this morning to protest wages and working conditions after months of talks have failed to squeeze more money out of Premier Bernard Lord’s Conservative government.

Health Minister Dr. Dennis Furlong said Sunday evening there is some hope of a settlement because the two sides are talking, with the help of a mediator who became involved over the weekend.

“I hope there won’t be a strike,” Furlong said. “I would encourage the physicians of New Brunswick to keep working while we are trying to get out of this impasse with regards to wage competitiveness.”

But Furlong’s hope seemed faint. He admitted the two sides are far apart.

The province has offered the doctors a fee increase that would work out to about 12.5 percent, or $23,000 Canadian per doctor (about $15,350 in U.S. money), over four years. The physicians are demanding a 30 percent increase, or $50,000 (worth $33,370 in U.S. dollars), to bring their wages in line with those in Nova Scotia.

A family doctor in New Brunswick currently earns about $150,000 per year (approximately $100,109 in U.S. terms) in billings from the provincial medicare system. Out of that, the doctors pay staffing and office expenses.

Furlong said he doesn’t believe the province is wildly out of line with most of its neighbors.

“Yes, we are behind some of our neighbors, but we’re also ahead of some,” he said.

“We are ahead of Quebec, but it appears we’re behind Nova Scotia. We’re certainly ahead of Newfoundland,” he said, adding the province offers fees similar to Prince Edward Island’s.

The New Brunswick Medical Society, which represents the province’s physicians, had no comment on Sunday.

However, the doctors have said in the past they believe the public is on their side.

Emergency services still will be available through the hospitals.

“The government is starting to feel the pressure from the public, who have shown us that they still support us in what we’re trying to do,” Dr. John McCann, president of the medical society, said last week.

“The government has seen that, but it’s still not willing to take the necessary steps and truly come out and say there’s a serious problem with physician resources in this province.”

Furlong said there is a shortage of doctors in New Brunswick and that is making conditions more difficult for the physicians who are here.

He said the problem isn’t unique to New Brunswick.

“There is difficulty right across Canada now with health human resources,” said Furlong, a family doctor himself from northern New Brunswick.

“There’s a perceived shortage. This is because of decisions made 10 years ago to cut medical schools [enrollment] by 10 percent. I don’t think it could have happened at a worse time because the people who would have been trained to be doctors are the ones we need now for the baby boomers.”

The doctors haven’t said how long they plan to stay out, but there’s speculation a walkout would last only one or two days.

Even a short strike could wreak havoc in hospital emergency rooms and throw surgical schedules behind schedule as thousands of elective procedures are postponed.

“Undoubtedly, there will be a delay of some services,” Furlong said. “But I want to assure New Brunswickers that if there is an emergency, it will be cared for.”