Access to family doctors: appointment places taken away from healthy people?

Withdrawing 1.5 million appointments from patients registered with a family doctor, the majority of whom are healthy, in order to offer them to people who do not have one, is one of the scenarios envisaged in a recent INESSS study to ensure that all Quebecers have access to a family doctor.

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The National Institute of Excellence in Health and Social Services (INESSS) published, earlier this week, a portrait of the use of front-line services.

In 2022-2023, approximately 2.1 million Quebecers were not registered with a family doctor, which represents nearly one in four people. Of this total, nearly 500,000 of them have major or moderate health problems.

In order to meet the needs of the population, experts believe that there is no other choice than to consider a “significant reorganization” of the way medical appointments are offered.

Of 17.6 million consultations carried out in 2022-2023, nearly 40% were carried out by healthy people, they noted in their study.

Thus, among the scenarios explored, INESSS proposes making 1.5 million appointments offered to patients registered with a doctor, particularly among healthy people, to those who do not have one.

For example, registered Quebecers who do not have a major health problem could lose 640,000 appointments, which would make it possible to offer 780,000 to those not registered in health.

As for those suffering from major illnesses, removing 140,000 from those registered would open the door to 330,000 appointments for those not registered.

The other option suggested by the committee of experts would be to add 2 million visits, which would make it possible to double the average number of front-line visits for unregistered people, who consult on average between 2 and 6 times less than registered people.

Faced with these proposals, Health Minister Christian Dubé indicated on Thursday on X that “it is much too early to advance on any scenario proposed by experts”.

“We are in a period of negotiation and we will not make any further comments,” he added.


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