Citizens of the Outaouais who are without a family doctor will have to be patient next week. No medical consultation slots will be offered by general practitioners in the region at the first line access desk (GAP) from 1er June, according to the head of the regional department of general medicine, Dr Marcel Guilbault. The head of the emergency department at the CISSS de l’Outaouais, DD Christal Dionne fears that many patients wait 24 hours in hospital to obtain non-urgent care.
The agreement on accessibility concluded in 2022 between the Quebec government and the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) will end on May 31. However, the parties still do not agree on the next steps. A conciliator was appointed on Friday. On the ground, the effects of the end of this agreement — which allowed the registration of 910,000 patients with groups of family doctors — are already being felt.
In Outaouais, 1,325 medical appointment slots are available on average each week at the GAP, according to the Dr Guilbault. For the moment, the count is at zero next week. “It’s a huge loss. The Minister [de la Santé Christian Dubé] should have organized to renew the agreement! » he said.
Orphaned patients will suffer. “The sickest people who really need to see a doctor risk finding themselves in an overwhelmed emergency room,” he points out.
This is already what the D observesD Dionne. The number of GAP medical appointment slots is decreasing in the region. “Last week, we saw patients who had waited 24 hours in the waiting room,” says the family doctor, who practices in the Hull emergency room. “These were minor cases, for example a patient without a family doctor with a skin infection, but treatment had to be started. »
The DD Dionne considers the situation “very anxiety-provoking”. She recalls that the Outaouais suffers from a “glaring lack of manpower”, particularly nurses and radiology technologists. “We depend on the reorientation [vers des cliniques médicales] to reduce traffic and help us ensure that patients are taken care of,” she says. In the emergency room of Hull hospital, 27% of priority 4 and 5 (non-urgent) cases were redirected during the financial period ending March 31, she specifies.
Unfilled GAP spaces are offered as “reorientation” to orphan patients who present to the emergency room. “No GAP beach is wasted, contrary to what Minister Dubé may suggest,” said the Dr Guilbault, who denounces the government’s speech towards family doctors.
A decline in beaches in Quebec
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Services, between 18,000 and 23,000 medical appointment slots are offered at GAP on average each week in the province. This number drops to 5699 for the week of 1er June, to 5488 for that of the 8th and to 2602 for that of the 15th.
Questioned about the situation in Outaouais, the office of the Minister of Health transmitted to the Duty the following statement from Christian Dubé: “I am concerned by the union maneuver to encourage the cessation of appointments for GAP patients. I want to reassure patients, I will never accept that Quebecers are taken hostage. »
The minister and the FMOQ engaged in a standoff nearly a month and a half ago over the agreement on accessibility. Under this, a family medicine group (GMF) obtains $120 per patient registered collectively per year.
According to data revealed by Quebec in mid-April, half of the patients registered with a GMF had not obtained a medical appointment in the last two years. Christian Dubé said he had new data in hand on Saturday. However, he did not reveal them, nor did he say what proportion of registered patients had actually requested an appointment without obtaining one.
The Minister of Health has been repeating for weeks that he wants to consult data on medical supply and demand before reaching an agreement with the family doctors’ union. But will there be time to have this data extracted and analyzed by May 31, knowing that it has been available since the 23rd? His office indicated last Thursday to the Duty “that we will gradually have certain information over the coming weeks.”
The president of the Association of Emergency Physicians of Quebec, Dr.D Judy Morris hopes that there will be “an outcome” in the negotiations between Quebec and the FMOQ. She fears an effect on emergencies, as well as on delays in waiting rooms. “The GAP is truly an innovation, a service that was appreciated by people, which provided good service, especially for patients who did not have access to network clinics, to a family medicine group. »