The amount of the annual bonus offered to family doctors for each patient registered through the First Line Access Counter (GAP) has decreased by $20 to reach $100 per patient annually.
The president of the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ), Dr.r Marc-André Amyot presented to his members, Friday noon, the details of the agreement concluded the day before with the government of Quebec.
Another change to the agreement, the premium will no longer be paid in full as soon as the appointment is available. A first amount of $50 will be allocated when a time slot is open and the other $50 at the time of the appointment.
Both parties appear satisfied with the agreement reached.
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, underlined Thursday that the bridge agreement for the GAP will “keep certain important principles, such as collective registration”.
Since 2022, an annual premium of $120 has been paid for each patient registered with a family medicine group (GMF) via the GAP. The aim was for GMFs to take care of patients without a family doctor.
For additional staff and premises
The Dr Amyot has repeatedly argued that the bonus amount is used to hire staff and rent premises in order to accommodate more patients. “Doctors have reorganized their practice,” he argued Thursday, before the conclusion of the agreement with Quebec was announced.
This agreement ended on May 31, which had the effect of reducing the number of appointments with a doctor available on the GAP. At one point, we could see that the number of appointments offered via the GAP had increased from 17,604 in the week of May 18 to 1,133 for the week of June 29.
In the press scrum on Thursday, the Dr Marc-André Amyot suggested that the number of appointments offered via the GAP should increase in comparison with the drop observed since the end of the agreement. However, this will not return to the “previous state of GAP”.
He explained that some doctors who had decided to delay their retirement to provide services to the GAP may have retired now, in the context where it was not certain that the agreement would be renewed.
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