(Quebec) A new showdown opposes the Legault government and family doctors. The Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) is outright calling for the abandonment of Bill 11 – one of the milestones in the “overhaul” of the health system promised by Minister Christian Dubé.
Posted at 8:00 p.m.
The study of Bill 11 “aimed at increasing the supply of front-line services by general practitioners and improving the management of this supply” will begin on Tuesday and from the outset, the main interlocutor of the Legault government will ask the latter to back down and abandon the legislative text.
The Minister of Health’s proposal is “an irresponsible political choice”, an “incomprehensible slap in the face” to general practitioners and “a reckless attack on the interests of Quebecers in terms of medical care”, writes the FMOQ bluntly in a brief that will be presented. to parliamentarians on Tuesday.
Special consultations on the PL11 open this week in the National Assembly. Many groups such as the College of Physicians, the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec, the Order of Nurses of Quebec and the Council for the Protection of the Sick will be heard.
“This Bill 11 is totally unnecessary and totally incomprehensible. It will in no way resolve the front-line situation in Quebec. Worse, it will degrade it even more,” warns the FMOQ in the document that The Press was able to consult.
Christian Dubé has promised this fall to tackle the list of more than 800,000 Quebecers registered with the Guichet d’accès à un physician de famille with his Bill 11.
Among other things, the Minister wants to deploy an appointment management platform, a kind of “Trivago system”, so that orphan patients can obtain a consultation in less than 36 hours. To achieve this, PL11 provides several provisions to better understand the schedule of general practitioners. Better access to data is one of the four axes of the health system’s “recovery” plan.
“How can anyone seriously believe that solving problems with access to a family doctor on the front line can be reduced to a simple click in an electronic appointment system? Family physicians treat patients. They do not manage goods,” argues the FMOQ.
“It is disturbing to see the serious consequences that the bill can have on the already fragile state of the medical first line in our public health care network,” it added. The bill also “jeopardizes” “the quality and delivery of general medical care.”
An “impediment” to negotiations
According to the Federation, Bill 11 rather “flouts” the normal negotiation process and constitutes “a major obstacle” to it. ” [Le PL11] trampling on the agreements that were concluded very recently with the FMOQ. It devalues family medicine, ”continues the union in its brief.
Quebec must “choose the path of dialogue and collaboration in order to find a long-term solution to the problems related to the organization of services,” it is pleaded.
We have made innovative and bold proposals to reach an agreement aimed at better access to front-line services. We share this objective with the government and we are aware of the difficulties Quebecers have in obtaining the services of a family doctor.
Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec in its brief
It should be remembered that Bill 11 was introduced by Minister Christian Dubé after several weeks of tension between general practitioners and the Legault government last fall.
The Premier set the tone in his inaugural speech in mid-October, publicly showing his impatience with his negotiations with the FMOQ. François Legault then argued that he was ready to table a bill to allow the CEOs of the CISSSs and CIUSSSs to be informed of the identity of doctors who do not follow at least 1,000 patients.
The Prime Minister had previously revealed that he had obtained a list identifying these doctors from data from the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ). The FMOQ had threatened to sue the government. Minister Dubé then qualified the Prime Minister’s remarks.
The threat of penalty was finally dismissed in Bill 11, which does not provide for the imposition of any target or sanction. Christian Dubé then spoke “with an outstretched hand” to family doctors. In its brief, the FMOQ says it sees it as “hostile and vexatious legislative action”.
“November 11, 2021, the date of the presentation of Bill 11 will remain another dark day in the legislative history of the doctor in Quebec”, decides the union. The FMOQ calls for the abandonment of PL11 as well as “the repeal of all the coercive and penalizing provisions of Bill 20”.
Former Minister Gaétan Barrette’s Bill 20 provides for the imposition of financial penalties on family physicians who do not reach certain targets in terms of access to services. These penalties were ultimately never applied. According to the FMOQ, PL11 is an “updated version of the sorry law” of the Couillard government.