Health Minister Ted Flemming asked his department to look into an auditor general's report that showed billing issues with the province's doctors. (CBC)

After feuding for over a month the New Brunswick government and the province's medical society sat down on Saturday to stress goodwill.

The heated dispute started in December when Health Minister Ted Flemming vowed to "ferret out" any medicare overbilling.

His comments followed an auditor general report that found some doctors were billing both medicare and WorkSafeNB. His comments raised the ire of many doctors in the province.

The New Brunswick Medical Society had accused Flemming of attacking the character of the province's medical community and even took out a full page ad in the provincial newspapers.

Flemming has repeatedly downplayed his comments as being directed at a minority of doctors.

After a nearly two-hour meeting Flemming emerged from a room sporting a much calmer attitude.

"The medical society are aware of the report and they want to work in co-operation with the government in doing the right thing. So really it was essentially an agreement. Perhaps the rhetoric got a little off on both sides along the way," he said.

New Brunswick Medical Society president, Dr. Robert Desjardins, carried the same message out of the weekend meeting.

"Everybody wants to work in collaboration with the government to find if there is any overbilling or double billing, accidentally or mysteriously. If some of his comments have been taken out of context and kind of inflamed the atmosphere, we are very sorry," he said.

Meanwhile, the Saint John Medical Society submitted an editorial to the Telegraph Journal on Saturday praising Flemming for meeting with its doctors last week.