Doctors have lost ground in recent years. Their method of remuneration is increasingly being questioned. Patients often feel that they have become money-making machines and that payment per act is too far removed from the whole of their being; the doctor’s search for a targeted diagnosis too often masks the interrelations that govern the functioning of the human body. In addition, taxpayers feel that they are no longer getting value for their money in the services provided by the disciples of Hippocrates.
What shocks the population is the casualness of some doctors, who leave the public system temporarily or permanently, thus abandoning their patients in the hands of the competitor who will undoubtedly provide a faster service, but reserved only for those who can afford it financially. This migration is also evident among young doctors who have just graduated, who are turning their backs on the public system to join the private sector directly. By encouraging the creation of clinics managed by doctors and authorizing certain surgical operations paid for by the RAMQ, is the government not encouraging this worrying slippage?
Quebec society also criticizes a lack of recognition of doctors, who seem to forget that their education was largely funded by public funds. In fact, the total training of a family doctor is estimated at $450,000, while that of a specialist reaches the sum of $790,000. Given the very low tuition fees and the government financial aid available, medical students pay only a tiny fraction of these amounts.
This criticism of the medical profession is not intended to cast doubt on the quality of care provided by doctors. Rather, it aims to highlight certain behaviors that harm the image of a profession that should remember that it is there to serve its population first and foremost, and not use it to obtain ever more at its expense.
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