The auditor general of Quebec, Guylaine Leclerc, joins the government in the issue of access to data on family doctors. She even enjoins him to go further by implementing Law 20 of the former Minister of Health Gaétan Barrette.
In a brief submitted to the parliamentary committee on Bill 11 on Wednesday, Mr.me Leclerc recalls that she herself had recommended that the government access this data in a report in the fall of 2020.
The lack of data, she argued, prevents the government from evaluating the effectiveness of the funds invested each year to convince doctors to treat more patients.
The ministry should also have access “to all doctors’ time slots”, states its memorandum. From the outset, the State must be able to consult elements related to their remuneration. Otherwise, writes the auditor, it will not be possible for her to assess whether the financial incentives offered to doctors to take on more patients are working. In 2018-2019, these incentives amounted to $350 million.
This position contrasts with the flood of criticism recently aroused by Bill 11 from the medical profession since Tuesday.
Bill 11 would force family doctors to always go through the Guichet d’accès to add new patients. It would also make it possible to diversify the appointment scheduling tools used in the network and would give local managers unprecedented access to information on general practitioner schedules.
Enforcement of Law 20
The issue of data access is by far the most contentious in the bill. However, according to Guylaine Leclerc, the government must move forward and even go further.
It therefore recommends to the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, to apply Law 20, adopted by the Couillard government in 2015, the application of which was suspended by an agreement between the government and the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec. This law would force doctors to care for more patients by imposing penalties on them if they do not.
“Bill No.oh 11 is a continuation of Bill 20,” the brief states. “It aims, among other things, to respond to the recommendations made in our 2020 report, in particular that of obtaining quality data in order to evaluate access to family doctors. However, the entry into force of the articles of the law stemming from bill no.oh 20 remains a prerequisite”.
Nearly one million Quebecers are currently waiting for a family doctor at the access counter, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
Further details will follow.