(Montreal) The adoption of Bill 68 – the Act mainly aimed at reducing the administrative burden on doctors – was welcomed by groups of doctors, but they believe that the government is not going far enough.
Among the key measures, there is the single form for private insurers intended to standardize the documents that doctors must complete. Also, the services of health professionals can now be reimbursed without requiring a medical certificate.
Plus, no more doctor’s paperwork for sick leave at work for up to three days. The doctor will also be the one who decides how often he will see a patient on medium or long-term disability leave and no longer an insurance company.
Joined by The Canadian Press, the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ), the College of Physicians (CMQ) as well as the Federation of Specialist Physicians of Quebec (FMSQ) all indicated that the adoption of Bill 68 was a step in the right direction to reduce unnecessary paperwork that doctors have to complete.
However, all three groups say this is insufficient. “The measures contained in PL68 are only a tiny fraction of the total task. Much remains to be done. In particular government forms which could be assimilated to those of private insurers,” argued the FMOQ in writing.
“While recognizing the potential positive effects of the Bill on accessibility to care, we believe that efforts to reduce the administrative burden on medical specialists must be much more ambitious,” expressed the FMSQ in a press release.
The College of Physicians agrees, emphasizing from the outset that the planned measures will improve access to the health network by leaving more time for doctors to devote themselves to patients. “Moreover, we are disappointed that concrete measures that we had proposed were not retained by parliamentarians, such as that of creating a permanent multi-party committee responsible for regularly analyzing the administrative measures imposed on doctors or other professionals », Indicates the CMQ.
He had in fact suggested during special consultations last month that a multi-party committee be set up to study the relevance of the forms. He could have shortened them, merged them and in some cases abolished them. “It’s to make the doctor’s job easier, but it’s much more. […] To ensure that the patient’s journey does not become that of an obstacle course”, the president of the CMQ, D, then commented to the elected officials.r Mauril Gaudreault.
The government calculates that the measures in Bill 68 will free up 600,000 appointment slots per year.
The FMOQ does not share this opinion. She mentions that administrative tasks represent 25% of doctors’ time, but to this is added work done in the evenings and on weekends and “that family doctors are not paid for this work.”
In this sense, reducing paperwork will not necessarily translate into clinical work. “In total we will free up very little time that can be converted into meetings. In addition, an appointment to fill out a form which will be replaced by an appointment to receive treatment does not add new appointments, but makes the visit to a doctor more relevant,” explains the FMOQ in writing. .
On the other hand, the FMSQ is concerned that the ministries and soon Santé Québec are not applying the guidelines of the new law. “If this bill removes certain administrative tasks from doctors, but at the same time, ministries continue to introduce new ones which prove useless, it is utopian to hope that a real reduction in the administrative burden will occur. operates,” warns the federation which represents specialist doctors.
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