Physicians who work for CISSSs and CIUSSSs will no longer have to undergo annual training to perform certain simple medical tests from their offices, such as pregnancy tests.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
On August 19, The Press reported the frustration of doctors forced to undergo several hours of training in order to be able to carry out simple tests in their offices.
This situation was due in particular to the deployment of OPTILAB, a grouping of various medical biology laboratories divided into 12 “clusters of services”, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS).
This reorganization, which began in 2011, provides that laboratories must obtain accreditation from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) with regard to outsourced medical biology examinations (done outside the laboratories).
Among the requirements of this approval: recurrent staff training.
Suspended “until further notice”
Thus, very simple tests must now be sent to the laboratory, rather than being carried out at the doctor’s office. Otherwise, they can be carried out on site by nurses or doctors, provided that they have received specific annual training of one hour per type of test.
However, in a memo sent on August 23 to all OPTILAB managers and obtained by The Pressthis last condition would be suspended “until further notice”.
This new instruction, imposed following a “request from the MSSS”, concerns only doctors and a category of very simple tests that they can again perform from their offices, without annual training.
These are urine strip tests, pregnancy tests, Amniotest and Strep test.
Note that this training requirement applied only to physicians working for CISSSs or CIUSSSs. Family medicine clinics could therefore continue to use these tests as usual, without training.
With the collaboration of Lila Dussault, The Press