(Quebec) The strong reaction of the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ), which calls for the complete abandonment of Bill 11, is an “completely normal” reaction to the change, says the Minister of Health, Christian Dube.
Posted at 9:28
“Anyone, when they are faced with changes, has this initial reaction. It’s completely normal”, launched the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, on his arrival at the parliamentary committee on Bill 11, which aims to increase the supply of front-line services by doctors in family. The proceedings begin Tuesday at the National Assembly with the participation of the FMOQ.
The union of general practitioners set the tone for the work with the filing of a punchy brief calling for the total withdrawal of the legislative text. The Minister of Health’s proposal is “an irresponsible political choice”, an “incomprehensible slap in the face” to general practitioners and “a reckless attack on the interests of Quebecers in terms of medical care”, writes the FMOQ bluntly.
“This Bill 11 is totally unnecessary and totally incomprehensible. It will in no way resolve the front-line situation in Quebec. Worse, it will degrade it even more, ”we add.
“I think we are [devant] a great example of change management. We said that we wanted to do things differently in the recovery of health and it is completely normal, this kind of reaction, when you are in change management. This is the first thing, I have already experienced it and I think people need to be reassured. We have a single objective: that is for each Quebecer to have a family doctor. The tone, for me, is secondary,” defended Minister Dubé.
He said that the consultations, which are being held until Thursday, will allow over the next few days “to hear both sides of the coin”. Many groups such as the College of Physicians, the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec, the Order of Nurses of Quebec and the Council for the Protection of the Sick will be heard.
In his opening remarks, Minister Dubé recalled on Tuesday that “unfortunately” his government has not been able to reach an agreement with the FMOQ in recent years to increase patient care. “We want to collaborate, it’s not a punishment bill, it’s a management bill,” added Christian Dubé.
A “guarantee of failure”, says the FMOQ
The new president of the FMOQ, Dr.r Marc-André Amyot, severely criticized the aims of the Legault government in its Bill 11. “It’s one thing to use a system like Trivago to book a hotel room, […] it’s a whole other thing to do it to solve a health problem, “said the Dr Amyot in front of the parliamentarians.
Christian Dubé promised last fall to attack the list of more than 800,000 Quebecers registered with the Window for access to a family doctor with his bill.
The Minister wants to deploy an appointment management platform, a kind of “Trivago system”, so that orphan patients can obtain a consultation in less than 36 hours. In particular, it will force doctors to offer more availability to their family medicine group (GMF).
To achieve this, the PL11 provides several provisions to better understand the schedule of general practitioners. Access to data is one of the four axes of the vast plan for the “refoundation” of the health system that the Minister of Health wishes to deploy to “recover” the network, damaged by the pandemic.
The FMOQ says it wants to work with the Legault government to increase care for Quebecers, but the solution can only rest with family doctors.
“We have made innovative and bold proposals to reach an agreement aimed at better access to front-line services. We share this objective with the government and we are sensitive to the difficulties Quebecers have in obtaining the services of a family doctor,” writes the FMOQ.