Even though the number of patients officially “taken care of” by a family medicine group has increased considerably, citizens are still struggling to obtain appointments, admitted Minister Christian Dubé.
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“Unfortunately, what I hear a lot is that people now say: ‘I have a doctor or I have access to a clinic that has been identified to me, but I’m not able to see them’ . This means that the next step, step 2.0, is [de voir] how we can remove the blockers,” the Minister of Health said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Montreal.
Before the pot, the flowers. Mr. Dubé took care to praise the “extraordinary work” of family doctors, who took care of 867,360 additional patients under an agreement with the government. But he deplores that these “supports” remain abstract for lack of being embodied in real consultations.
“Yes, there has been support, but it has not yet converted, in my opinion, to a number of meetings to have an impact on others…” he said , without finishing his sentence.
- Listen to the interview with Luc Boileau, national director of public health on Alexandre Dubé’s show via QUB radio :
This statement was not to the taste of the president of the Fédération des omnipraticiens du Québec (FMOQ), Marc-André Amyot. “No, that means meetings,” he said on the phone a few moments later.
“At a given moment, the doctors cannot see 80 patients in a day, there is a human limit with a shortage of staff,” he explained.
Mr. Amyot still recognizes that “not everyone has access to an appointment” for a medical consultation, but he refuses to place the blame on the doctors.
“These are the same doctors who work in the emergency room and who work in GMFs and on the front line,” he emphasizes.
Asked how to resolve the problem, Mr. Amyot replies that we must “make optimal use of all available appointments.” “Anything that is not urgent, can it be done by a nurse or postponed?” he suggested.
According to the most recent government data, more than 7 million Quebecers are currently registered with a family doctor or a family medicine group.