The health care system is sick, it is true. But to claim that family physicians are responsible for it is wrong. Several events speak for themselves. Nurses are exhausted and are leaving the public system. The demand for psychological help by physicians in the Quebec Physician Assistance Program has exploded in recent years. The exodus of health professionals to the private sector is accelerating.
We are family physicians and we love our profession.
However, we are not prepared to botch our work to allow the government to meet its accounting targets for electoral purposes. The more patients your doctor has, the less time they will have with you, that’s the reality.
Doctors want to be part of the solution, but the Minister of Health’s non-collaborative approach is counterproductive. His speech in the media is insulting and demotivating to people on the ground.
Imposing additional tasks and a government-dictated schedule will not only be ineffective, but also harmful. This government interference and bureaucratic control of medical practice will precipitate retirements and create an exodus to the private sector, just as compulsory overtime has done for nurses.
It is illusory to think that doctors alone will be able to meet the growth in demand for care linked to the aging of the population.
Other solutions
The gradual release of physicians from their priority medical activities (obligation to work a number of hours in the hospital, CHSLD, emergencies), coverage by the public plan of the service of other professionals such as physiotherapists and psychologists, alleviating administrative tasks, reducing the time to see specialists and mental health workers in the public network must be part of the solutions.
Unfortunately, the current discourse has repercussions on the next generation, which amplifies the lack of resources. Four hundred and twenty-five places have been left vacant in recent years, more precisely since the beginning of the era of denigration of family doctors with the presence of the Minister of Health Gaétan Barrette. In a recent open letter, the Quebec Medical Student Federation points out that the two main reasons for students to shun family medicine in Quebec were the negative discourse towards family physicians and the restrictive practice environment associated with it.
Why pursue this path which will inevitably lead to an amplification of the shortage of family physicians?
We are seeing more and more patients with mental health issues in our offices. Our society, which advocates hyperproductivity, to the detriment of a work-family balance, contributes to this. In most couples, each one works. And many are out of breath.
What we ask of doctors, what we threaten them with, encourages this hyperproductivity which goes against this balance advocated by many as a model for the future. The criticism of those who do not do enough is aimed primarily at women who represent 60% of family physicians, but also at this generation of men who want to offer their children more than professional fulfillment as an example.
In our opinion, the choice of productivity over quality of care will have repercussions that will probably not be revealed until too late, when many have left the boat. Is it so difficult to work together before the health boat takes even more water?
* Co-signatories, physicians in various regions of Quebec: Véronic Thibault, Terrebonne; Annie Brochu, Quebec; Mélanie Lussier, Montreal; Alix Dufresne, Montreal; Karen Oulianine, Montreal; Anne Pomerleau, Sherbrooke; Caroline St-Pierre, Quebec; Patricia Bell, Terrebonne; Jacobo Jaramillo, Montérégie-Est; Sambou Dabo, Laval; Marie-Pierre Dumas, Quebec; Julie Fréchette, Trois-Rivières; Camille B. Forest, Lévis; Annie Blais, La Tuque; Chantal Brochu, Lévis; Carine Paquet, Sherbrooke; Frederique Bissonnette, Lévis; Marie-France Rioux, Quebec; Laurent Vandycke, Longueuil; Solène Charland, Terrebonne; Jessica Risch, Varennes; Audrey Bernard, Laval; Chantal Charbonneau, La Sarre; Kathy Poulin, Montreal; Isabel Gonzales, Longueuil; Dave Beauchemin, Sorel-Tracy; Dany Beauchemin, Sorel-Tracy; Geneviève Forest, Joliette; Amélie St-Cyr Monaco, Saint-Eustache; Isabelle Tanguay, Saint-Hyacinthe; Émilie Pineault, Chicoutimi; Annie Lacombe, Saint-Eustache; Camille Boudreau, Montreal; Yasmina Dadouchi, Montreal; François Malouin, Saint-Eustache; Serena Chiovitti, Laval; Martine Jacques, Quebec; Sylvie Chateauvert; Amy Fraser, Terrebonne; Isabelle Tanguay, Saint-Hyacinthe; Annie Demers, Montreal; Serena Chiovitti, Laval; Oumhani Toubal, Gatineau; Michel Tran, Montreal; Myriam Tardif-Harvey, Les Escoumins; Manon Trudel, Chicoutimi; Dominique Giguère, Trois-Rivières; Guy Therrien, Saint-Eustache; Luce De Grâce, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu; Mélissa Tremblay, Chicoutimi; Anne Hébert, Plessisville; Cassandra Beauvais, Laval and Laurentides; Maxime Vézina, Saint-Eustache; Alexia Tardif, Quebec; Annick Emond, Port-Cartier; Liliane Desgroseilliers, Sainte-Julie; Charlotte Jacquemin, Montreal; Chakib Detti, Montreal; Anne-Marie Pelletier, Laval and Laurentides; Jennifer Mitton, Gatineau; Brigitte Bédard, Blainville; Amélie Beaudin, Magog; Chantal Valois, Laurentides; Sophie Gervais, Matapedia; Marie-Chantal Pouliot-Leclerc, Dolbeau-Mistassini; Marie-Josée Hotte, Longueuil; Nathalie Bourget, Saint-Henri; Viviane Lamarre, Montreal; Isabelle Martin, Gatineau; Gabrielle Deslauriers, Châteauguay; Stéphanie Perreault, Saint-Hilaire; Diane Hébert, Quebec; Annie Pham, Montreal; Sylvie Letovanec, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu; Arminda Gjika, Montreal; Marie-line Tousignant, Lévis; Caroline Blanchet, Saguenay; Laeticia Lam Shang Leen, Montreal; Patricia Marchand, Trois-Rivières
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