Dr. Robert Desjardins, president of the New Brunswick Medical Society, sent the invitation on Friday. (NBMS)

The New Brunswick Medical Society has invited the premier and Health minister to its next board meeting to explain "recent comments made to reporters about physicians."

"Your assertion that you do not want to go to war with the profession conflicts with the numerous attacks on our character, our professional responsibilities, and our work ethic," the invitation from the society's new president, Dr. Robert Desjardins, states.

The invitation to Premier David Alward and Health Minister Ted Flemming comes in the midst of a controversial debate about whether some doctors in the province are overbilling medicare or double billing the province.

Flemming has publicly said he will "ferret out" any offending doctors.

'The suggestion that the government or this minister are painting everybody with the same brush is so nonsensically ludicrous that it’s hardly even worth responding.'—Health Minister Ted Flemming

But he's not offering any apologies and dismisses the notion that he wants to smear the whole medical profession.

"The suggestion that the government or this minister are painting everybody with the same brush is so nonsensically ludicrous that it’s hardly even worth responding," he told CBC News on Friday, in response to the letter.

Flemming says he is just doing his job, being a steward of the public purse and making sure all doctors are paid what they earn, but no more.

"In every bucket of apples, you might have the odd [bad apple] — and some of it could be genuine mistakes. Some of it could be improper billing codes. It could be any number of things," he said.

"We’re just trying to run a good government and I’m trying to run a good department and the suggestion that this is in any way an attack on doctors, as I say, is just nonsense.”

'Ready for conflict'

A statement on the medical society's website goes on to say: "We also understand that the government is about to announce news that they are considering reducing access to care."

No other details are provided.

"If the Alward government wants to discredit and damage the relationship with physicians, we can take it. If the Alward Government wants to damage patient care, doctors are ready for a conflict," the statement says.

The tone of both the invitation and statement stands in stark contrast to comments made by another Medical Society official in a government release issued on Thursday.

“We look forward to a stronger relationship with the Department of Health as New Brunswick works to build a more sustainable health-care system," executive director Anthony Knight had said.

The medical society's next board meeting will be held on Jan. 26 in Fredericton.

Earlier this month, the province's auditor general said some doctors are overbilling medicare without facing any penalties.

Sixteen doctors were paid more than $1 million in 2011, more than double the amount budgeted by the Department of Health for the average annual earnings of a specialist, Kim MacPherson stated in her 2012 report, released earlier this month.

In some cases, doctors double billed, charging both medicare and the province's WorkSafe NB for the same service, the province's chief financial watchdog said.