Concerned about accessibility to health care, the Regroupement provincial des comités des usagers (RPCU) is asking to be heard by Quebec on the subject of Bill 67. This legislative text aims to expand the powers of certain professionals such as pharmacists and psychologists.
Special consultations on the bill in question will end this Tuesday. In a letter addressed to the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, who is piloting the legislative text, the RPCU expressed its disappointment at not having been summoned to a parliamentary committee.
“Users of the entire health and social services network are the primary stakeholders in the area of access to and the quality of the services provided,” the group wrote in its letter that The Duty was able to consult. This care must “imperatively remain public in nature,” adds the organization.
If Bill 67 is adopted, it would allow psychologists or sexologists to diagnose certain mental disorders. However, many of these Quebec professionals work in the private sector, points out Sylvie Tremblay, general director of the provincial group of user committees.
“Access to the public for vulnerable clienteles remains essential. And the bill does not address that,” she says. It is therefore “the elephant in the room,” according to Mme Tremblay: “If I need a psychologist for a diagnosis, but he charges $150 an hour, I have mixed access to a professional,” she illustrates.
Despite the reservations raised, the group welcomes a possible expansion of the powers of certain professionals, says Sylvie Tremblay. “We hope that at the end of this bill, the right to choose one’s professional will be even more fully opened. Before, it was very much the doctors who had everything in their backyard.”
The legislation would, among other things, allow pharmacists to prescribe medication for common illnesses such as urinary tract infections or conjunctivitis.
Further details will follow.