Once again this year, medical graduates in Quebec are abandoning family medicine in favor of other specialties. In the province, 90 positions for family medicine residents were not filled during the first round of matching by CaRMS, the pan-Canadian organization in charge of the operation.
“It’s still very sad,” said the president of the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ), Dr.r Marc-Andre Amyot. It’s the first round, but last year, in the first round, we had about the same number of unfilled positions. After the second round, 75 positions remained. The final results will be known this year on May 12.
According to data made public by CaRMS on Tuesday, all specialty positions in Quebec have been filled, with the exception of one in pediatrics at Université Laval, a second in anatomopathology at Université de Sherbrooke, a third in nuclear medicine at the University of Sherbrooke and a fourth in radiation oncology at McGill University.
For the Dr Amyot is proof that we must value family medicine and first “stop denigrating it”. According to him, the “heaviness” of the system also discourages graduates from adopting family medicine.
Relations have been strained between family physicians and the government since this fall. Prime Minister François Legault criticized them for not doing enough. The FMOQ, for its part, rejected Bill 11, which aims to improve access to the front line. Negotiations are underway between general practitioners and Quebec.
Since 2013, 400 residency positions in family medicine have not been filled, according to the FMOQ. However, retirements are accelerating in Quebec. Some 275 general practitioners caring for patients reported to the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec in 2021 that they were leaving the practice or would do so within two years. A number almost twice as high as in 2017, according to data obtained by The duty with the RAMQ.