Take care of our professionals
Very nice letter which contextualizes very well the practice of family medicine beyond simple statistics. Our Prime Minister’s contempt for family physicians in recent weeks unfortunately brings back the bitter taste of the bashing of the Barrette era. Our government has every interest in looking at things beyond the numbers, which it did not do with nurses and see where we are today. Let us take care of our health professionals rather than despise them, this is much more constructive.
Maryse Samson, senior executive of the newly retired health network
A systemic problem
It is obvious that there are a large number of very dedicated doctors who have a vocation, but the fact is that it is very difficult to meet a doctor. No doubt there is a systemic organizational problem. Couldn’t the shortage of family doctors that has been created, you write, be reduced by creating more positions for doctors who would have the possibility of working part-time? Given their level of remuneration, that would still ensure a good standard of living for them.
Jeanne Baillargeon
Care reform is needed
I am sorry to answer your letter in this way, but I sincerely believe that there needs to be reform in the care of individuals. The practice of family medicine has changed so much over the past 20 years. Medical specialties have become more refined and protocols have been established to guide you. A nurse clinician could easily auscultate, assess, diagnose, and even prescribe certain medications or refill prescriptions. I sincerely believe that family medicine in the office should change, that physicians should all have a specialty or focus on inpatient or problematic cases. Follow-ups, evaluations, diagnoses should be made and led by nurses. I do not understand why the assumption of responsibility is reserved only for the family doctors. The means that we have today to support a diagnosis are innumerable, the much greater knowledge acquired by nurses should give them more autonomy and power over care. I therefore fully understand the decline in interest in family medicine, which will only be exacerbated.
Marie-Claude Lebel
Working doctors
I agree with this letter. Most family physicians work longer hours than most people. Pregnant, they work anyway and stop working at the 37e week. They don’t always take parental leave for a year, often returning to work after a few months. Also, it does not encourage medical students to go into this specialty, which should be considered like other specialties.
Marlène Lessard, mother of a family doctor
Words that annoyed me
Thank you for this letter. I am a family doctor in the region, with 800 patients in my charge. I also cover one week out of five in hospital, on call 24 hours a day for seven days. I am also involved in various committees within my CIUSSS. The Prime Minister’s comments annoyed me. I even looked with interest at job postings in another province. If I myself have thought about leaving the boat, I can understand that unfortunately, many medical externs will opt for another specialty. All my colleagues are tired from the last year and a half. It will take more than Mr. Legault’s compassion to pick up the mess.
Kevin Girard, family doctor
Not robots
Considering general practitioners as robots capable of mass production of a determined number of patients is certainly not a most honorable mark of recognition. We can extrapolate more, but the main issue is to have access to a doctor at all times in a clinic and not in the emergency room with the help of a better electronic patient record. If the doctor sees himself relieved of this imposed burden, he will wish to remain in the public instead of fleeing elsewhere or in the private sector. I am convinced that freed from this obligation, all general practitioners will see more patients than at present and that patients will have the assurance of obtaining an appointment more quickly. If we have been able to create Family Medicine Groups (GMF), many of which have walk-in clinics, we are able to develop them at this stage by adapting them to new professional and family realities.
Lise St-Laurent
Deficient organization
I think 98% of family physicians do exceptional work. There are always exceptions! However, the organization of work around family doctors seems to me to be deficient. Why, when applying for life insurance, does the company send us a nurse to do a thorough examination? A nurse once gave me an EKG at home! If it’s acceptable in this case, maybe it should be in general. I would be perfectly comfortable having a family nurse!
Jean-Guy Dalpe
A matter of decency
It is not normal to have more family doctors per capita than in many places in the world and to have so many people without a family doctor. This is unjustifiable. Health represents nearly 50% of spending in the Quebec budget. Doctors have benefited greatly from salary increases in recent years, very widely even… It is high time that they stop pretending to be offended virgins and do their part. It seems to me that it is a simple matter of elementary decency.
Pierre Beaudoin
1. Read “Don’t quench the passion for our specialty!” ”