The inaugural speech was unequivocal: François Legault seems determined to reverse the stagnation. The CAQ wishes to take advantage of its unparalleled support and the unique opportunity that the pandemic offers us to reform our society from top to bottom. A majority of Quebecers sense that the future of our model is currently being played out. No wonder she welcomes this idea.
Unsurprisingly, it’s health will demand our primary attention.
Let us remember the popular adage: a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. However, the first line, on which our health system rests and is built, is in a sorry state. Modern medicine is a victim of the immeasurable success of its curative approaches. As the difficult access to general practitioners shows, prevention suffers. My family and I are on those endless waiting lists.
Without a doubt, we will have to find lasting solutions to this complex problem.
The Legault government is on the wrong track by proposing the use of an approach similar to that advocated by former Minister Barette. It will end in the same failure, and it is the patients deprived of doctors who will still suffer.
Sooner or later, Quebec will have to take note of the desire to work less expressed by the new generation of doctors (and workers in all directions!). In this regard, it is important to stress that the state does not have a monopoly on standing still. Unions and professional orders are taking an important part in this … Let us hope that the world of work will swap coercion for flexibility before long.
Obviously, we will need to train more family physicians. We will also have to make more room for the delegation of acts, multidisciplinarity and medical immigration. However, these solutions will be slow to bear fruit.
However, we do not have the luxury of time, a fortiori in a context of acute shortage.
This is why we should call in reinforcement two actors that we too often forget in the equation, in this case people and technology.
The resounding success of the vaccination campaign orchestrated on Clic Santé attests to this: technological means allow individuals to take charge of their health.
This victory should inspire us. We must extend its applications and set in motion the necessary democratization of preventive health.
Why not allow all Quebecers without a family doctor to make an online appointment for the examinations prescribed by the preventive calendar?
Of course, vaccination comes to mind spontaneously, but a whole panoply of preventive procedures could complete the list. These include blood tests, colon, lung and breast cancer screening, and diabetes tests that would benefit from being added to the calendar after the age of 35 for at-risk individuals.
Finally, women’s health should carve out a prominent place within this preventive arsenal. The famous Pap test remains to this day one of the most “cost-effective” prevention interventions. And yet access to this test is sadly far from assured.
Of course, health workers should be hired to offer these clinics and especially to monitor them. However, the economies of scale and the efficiency of the process alone justify this orientation. Let’s understand each other well. The idea is obviously not to replace doctors, but to allow them to focus their efforts where it counts.