(Quebec) After accusing them on Saturday of taking the population hostage, Christian Dubé softens his tone in front of family doctors. The Minister of Health says he is open to extending the agreement which allows the maintenance of the Front Line Access Counter (GAP).
Three days after leading a full-throated charge against the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ), Minister Christian Dubé is now committed to “not being intransigent” in his negotiations with the union. Mr. Dubé explains that he heard this request from the population “to find solutions” rather than clashing in the public square.
“I ask the same thing of the union leadership of the FMOQ,” declared Mr. Dubé on Tuesday.
This is a change of tone on the part of the minister. During the general council of the Coalition Avenir Québec on Saturday in Saint-Hyacinthe, he accused the FMOQ of having orchestrated a “union maneuver” by “incentivizing” family doctors to offer fewer appointments to patients in the GAP , from 1er June. The agreement negotiated in 2022 with the union for the deployment of the counter ends on May 31.
Mr. Dubé angered doctors in April by announcing the end of an annual bonus of $120 paid for each patient registered with a family medicine group (GMF). The abolition of this bonus risked harming access to the GAP, the FMOQ then warned.
A conciliator was appointed to try to resolve the impasse between the parties.
However, Christian Dubé now says he is open to extending the agreement –– and therefore the $120 bonus – but by making “adjustments”.
“In the days that follow, today the [conciliateur] has a first meeting and […] for me, this is one of the discussions that will take place. Is this the right amount? We will discuss it at the negotiating table, not with you,” explained Mr. Dubé in the press scrum. “I’m open to a lot of things as long as I accomplish my goals,” he added.
The $120 premium represents a bill of more than $100 million per year, since some 940,000 patients are registered with a group of family doctors thanks to the GAP.
The minister wants to have the guarantee that these registrations result in appointments “for the right patient”. The Press reported in April that half of the patients registered with a GMF through the new window have not obtained a medical appointment in the last two years, according to a government source. According to the FMOQ, this information does not hold water.
Today is Tuesday. The agreement [termine] Friday and I have often seen in my career negotiations that end at the last minute because the parties have found solutions.
Christian Dubé, Minister of Health
It would therefore be a transitional measure while Quebec renegotiates the employment contract for family doctors, which is called in the jargon the Framework Agreement.
“I no longer want to sign piecemeal agreements [pour le GAP] this is an individual agreement […] there are, I don’t know, a hundred agreements that come about around what we call [l’Accord]–framework,” underlined Mr. Dubé. These negotiations will be led by the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel.