I have been a family doctor for 30 years. From my first year of practice, in the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield emergency room, we already had a shortage of doctors! Since that time, the lack of support and the shortage of staff has only increased, believe me.
Despite everything, a new feature that arouses hope for the orphan population appeared two years ago: the First Line Access Desk (GAP). It’s not perfect, but the establishment of a mechanism with resources that can help improve access to care brings… hope! The result of collaboration between family doctors and the government, I believed in this project so much that I hired a clinical nurse. She does such a good job providing care ahead of my practice that it frees up my time to participate in the GAP and offer appointments to the unregistered population who needs to see a doctor.
Several medical teams in our region have also committed resources to participate in this effort. The funds associated with this program allow me to keep this experienced clinical nurse. In this context, seeing the Minister of Health Christian Dubé announce that he will unilaterally end, as of May 31, the funding required to maintain this offer of medical appointments is dismaying and shocking. Once again, we are making cuts to the front line of care, and what’s more, we are cutting something that was working despite a shortage of resources…
And during this time, at the same time, there seems to be indifference to the inexcusable waiting times experienced in certain regions of Quebec. Did you know, for example, that the wait in my region for priority E (non-urgent) gynecology consultations is now more than four years? However, in regions not so far from ours, it is less than six months. I don’t want to blame my specialist colleagues, they too are often struggling with an overload of work and imponderables beyond their control, but seeing such an expectation for our patients is shocking. This does not seem to concern our political leaders at all, which is all the more troubling.
The government finally wants to tackle the paperwork required of family doctors. Well done ! However, I encourage him to look at the number of forms that the Ministry of Health and Social Services and its establishments ask us for absences! The same goes for the Ministry of Education and its school service centers! The most absurd thing is having to fill out forms in order to allow patients who have birth or permanent deficiencies to have access to social measures. Can someone explain to me why I have to fill out the same forms every two years?
You ask family doctors to be available within 36 to 72 hours. I remind you that I am only a simple human. If we don’t take the time to care for people, mistakes can happen and the consequences can be life-altering for a patient and their loved ones. The heaviness of these consequences is experienced by all healthcare workers who have to return to work, morning after morning!
During my university training, I received letters of recommendation to go into surgery or psychiatry. Between its two extremes, I chose balance with family medicine. Even today, I do not regret my choice. However, I understand very well the students who hesitate and who refuse to come and practice family medicine. Today, I would have this same hesitation. It is up to the government to reverse this steep slope that it itself created with reforms that are as useless as they are harmful, which discourage the most committed among us.
If the minister wants to wage a very unnecessary political war on family doctors and continue the sinister work of Gaétan Barrette, former Quebec Minister of Health, in this regard, I would like him to say so honestly. I will then know that the time to retire has come for me. If not, he should listen to those who provide care and stop enacting changes and budget cuts that make no sense before it is too late.