Improved obstetric follow-up | Pregnant women will no longer have to seek a doctor, promises Carmant

It will no longer be up to pregnant women to find a doctor. A nurse will do the research for them. And, yes, the doctors will offer their collaboration, assures Lionel Carmant, Minister Delegate for Health and Social Services.

Louise Leduc
The Press

Wednesday, The Press announced the creation of a program, My Pregnancy, by which all pregnant women would henceforth be invited to inform the government that they are expecting a child.

If the primary goal is to come into contact with vulnerable women from the first trimester, it is also a question of offering a more centralized entry point to care for pregnant women for whom it is the cross and the banner. for pregnancy monitoring.

In an interview, Lionel Carmant notes that the program also provides a list of available professionals. This will include, in addition to doctors, specialist nurse practitioners and midwives.

Many readers doubted that family physicians would suddenly respond with the sole establishment of such a register.

In February, the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec described Bill 11 as an “irresponsible political choice” and an “incomprehensible slap in the face” by which Quebec intended in particular to oblige doctors to offer more availability to their family medicine group.

In the case of the My Pregnancy program, physicians will be asked to post their availability on a voluntary basis.

Why would they agree to it now? Because the program will be the subject of major campaigns – both with professionals and women – but also “because it is an initiative of the entire Ministry”, replies Minister Carmant.

But he notes that all doctors “are not competent” or “have no interest in monitoring pregnancy”, since the goal “is to possibly give birth to the patient”.

Aware of access issues

Currently, according to data from the Department, 466 general practitioners perform pregnancy follow-ups in Quebec, of which 45% also perform deliveries. (According to the most recent data, the number of births in Quebec is estimated at 81,850 in 2020.)

If everything goes as well as Lionel Carmant hopes, if doctors get on board and share the task with nurse practitioners and midwives, the fact remains that in general, in terms of women’s health, access to care is very complicated. Difficult to see a professional for a question of contraception (the insertion or removal of the IUD, for example), for regular tests to detect cancer of the cervix, etc.

Minister Lionel Carmant says he is aware of the problems of access, and this is why, he points out, Quebec has appointed a national director of maternal and child health, D^D Sylvie Bouvet.

The health of the mother or of the woman in general? “Eventually, we will want to look at all these questions [qui touchent toutes les femmes] “, says Minister Lionel Carmant.

As a first step, the definition of tasks of the D^r Bouvet is to look at everything related to the health of mothers and children, but its mandate could be broadened.

Lionel Carmant emphasizes having also asked the D^r Bouvet to study the issue of Pap tests (examination of cervical cells), which, in his opinion, are now outdated.

“Now we are looking for HPV [virus du papillome humain] through more sensitive tests”, and in this, as for the other issues addressed, it will be important that all women have access to it, specifies the Minister.