Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec | The “shortage affecting the province” worries

The Montreal region had 30 family doctor positions taken away last year. A “completely arbitrary” decision, according to the president of the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ), Dr.^r Marc-André Amyot, who is worried about “the shortage of general practitioners affecting the province”.

Ariane Lacoursiere
The Press

“The minister, he likes it, the data […] But the fact of cutting 30 PREMs in Montreal, that was not based on data. It was backed by data if you look at the color of the electoral map,” the D^r Amyot.

The latter made these remarks while the main stakeholders of the Quebec health network were gathered in Montreal for a conference on the first line of health.

A little before the D^r Amyot, the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, indicated that the “difficult decision” to withdraw family doctors in Montreal was justified by the great needs in the crowns: “We knew that we had to go towards the 450, because there was more missing there. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lack of them in Montreal. »

Vacant jobs

According to the D^r Amyot, there is a shortage of approximately 1,400 general practitioners in Quebec. And on Thursday, CARMS, an organization that matches future medical residents for different specialty positions across the country, announced that there will be 65 vacancies in family medicine in the province this year. “That’s twice as much as the rest of Canada combined. […] We have a major issue of attractiveness,” laments the president of the FMOQ.

Minister Christian Dubé acknowledged that in certain regions, such as the Laurentians, “the gap between needs and what is offered is unacceptable”. But he still believes that we need to obtain more data related to the lack of general practitioners. Mr. Dubé affirms that Bill 11 will allow him to “have the facts on the number of doctors by region” and to adjust the positions accordingly.

Assistant Deputy Minister of Health, the D^D Lucie Opatrny acknowledged that the health network “clearly has a capacity problem”, but she too believes that more data is needed. The D^D Opatrny believes, however, that “the stars are aligned” so that front-line care improves in Quebec.

Mr. Dubé announced that he would publish fifteen health system indicators next week. He hinted that these results would not necessarily be all good. But he rightly asserts that it is “the right time to publish them” to allow the network to improve.

If he believes that “the hut is currently burning”, the D^r Amyot wants to do his part and believes that “family doctors must be part of the solution”. Among the avenues currently being studied by the FMOQ: the possibility for a group of family physicians to register patients collectively and be remunerated accordingly. The D^r Amyot nevertheless raised the issue of the pay gap between medical specialists and general practitioners in Quebec. “If the pay differential was 20% higher in family medicine compared to specialists, do you really think that we would have 460 unfilled residency positions since 2013? Well no ! We will have to tell the real business. »

Problems with front-line access counters

Among the solutions to improve access to front-line care in Quebec, the Minister of Health is currently deploying front-line access counters (GAP). Thusday, The Press reported that problems in the deployment of another IT project, the HUB, were currently affecting the deployment of GAPs in certain regions of Quebec. Also called the “orchestrator”, the HUB aims to facilitate appointment scheduling.

Describing the HUB project as a “revolution in making appointments”, Mr. Dubé invited the population to “look over the mountain”. He claimed that the glitches encountered were “normal”.

The Minister gave the example of the Clic Santé vaccination appointment platform, which experienced problems in its infancy, but ultimately proved to be “a success”. “There are difficult things […] But the project is progressing very well,” he said.