The president of the Fédération des médecins spécialisé du Québec (FMSQ) will meet with Prime Minister François Legault for the first time on Monday as his organization calls for the start of negotiations for the renewal of its framework agreement with the government.
This will be the first meeting between the two men since the election of Dr Vincent Oliva at the head of the FMSQ in March 2021. It was the doctors’ union that requested this meeting.
The government has indicated that this will be an opportunity for the radiologist by training to present his priorities to the Prime Minister and his vision of things for issues concerning specialist doctors.
“The meeting focuses on issues affecting specialized medicine, in particular access to care and access to technical platforms,” said a spokesperson for the FMSQ, Pâris Psychogyios.
This summit meeting will, however, take place at a time when the agreement between Quebec and the FMSQ, which governs the remuneration of 5 billion dollars per year for 10,000 specialist doctors, expired a year and a half ago.
“We’re starting to tap our feet,” declared D.r Vincent Oliva in interview with The Press about two weeks ago.
In the circumstances, the FMSQ had sent a letter to the Treasury Board a little earlier to request the start of discussions. This notice called in particular for the establishment of a dispute resolution mechanism, in other words an arbitration mechanism.
“Extremely painful” discussions
The Dr Vincent Oliva maintained, however, that the FMSQ was not making this request because it fears that the government would eventually consider resorting to a special law. The federation said it was especially “scalded” by the “extremely painful” and “slow” discussions with Quebec on various issues over the past few years.
On August 27, Quebec submitted an initial offer to the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec (FMOQ), which must also renew its framework agreement. The government wants to review the patient care model and entrust other professionals with acts currently reserved for doctors.
At the same time, the Interprofessional Health Federation of Quebec (FIQ) must submit to its 80,000 members the conciliator’s proposed agreement for the renewal of working conditions as part of a referendum vote to be held in mid-October.
With Tommy Chouinard, La Presse