Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is urging premiers to stand united on the issue of doctors' pay, just days after announcing his government will be implementing a set of changes to the fee schedule for the province's doctors.

McGuinty sent a letter Friday to the other premiers, urging them to work together to make use of new technologies and drugs to cut costs in health care delivery.

The letter came on the heels of Monday's announcement by Health Minister Deb Matthews that hundreds of cuts to Ontario doctors' fees will be unilaterally imposed retroactively starting April 1.

The cuts have been a source of tension between the government and the Ontario Medical Association, with negotiations over the cost-saving measures falling apart more than two weeks ago.

McGuinty's letter urges the other provinces to look closely at the reforms his government will be implementing.

"I recognize that each province and territory has its own plans to reform medicare -- and each of us has our own starting point for payment arrangements with doctors," he wrote. "But I urge you to consider how we might work together through strong, forward-looking reforms -- such as those we are implementing in Ontario."

McGuinty argued that new time-saving technologies allow doctors to see many more patients a day. Therefore: "It only makes good sense that, when medical breakthroughs allow a physician to greatly increase the number of procedures or surgeries done in a day, the payment made by Canadians to that physician be reconsidered and re-balanced," he wrote.

McGuinty said he doesn't believe these cuts will result in family doctors fleeing Ontario for provinces with higher pay and better work environments.

In an interview with CTV's Question Period on Sunday, he maintained that the bulk of the cuts will not affect family doctors.

"These fee changes overwhelmingly do not impact our family doctors," he said.

Instead, the majority of the fee changes reflect new technologies that make some medical procedures more efficient, he said.

McGuinty gave the example of cataract surgery, which used to take a surgeon four hours to perform. Now, thanks to new technology, the surgery takes 15 minutes.

"We're saying that should be generating some savings for us," said McGuinty. "We're not going to pay you the same amount for the same surgery if you can do it in one-eighth of the time."

McGuinty defended his government's record on healthcare, saying that they've added approximately 3,400 more doctors in the last several years, and that 93 per cent of Ontarians now have a family doctor.

"We think we've done a pretty good job of ensuring that we've got some very competitive pay scales for our doctors. The fact of the matter of is we've made a really good team and we've scored some major successes for Ontario families in terms of improving the quality of their health care," he said.

Adjusting doctors' fees is just one of the ways the government intends to attack its multi-billion dollar deficit. It is part of a larger plan to reign in the salaries of the province's public sector workers, including doctors, nurses and teachers. It was also one of the key recommendations in the Drummond Report -- a 500 page report released in February on how the Ontario government can reduce expenditures.

In response to the cuts, OMA president Dr. Doug Weir accused the premier of neglecting the province's physicians while provinces such as Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan are increasing the fees paid to doctors.