The Quebec government announced on Tuesday measures which, it assures, will increase the time that Quebec doctors dedicate to their patients and reduce their administrative burden.
From now on, the government will allow doctors to determine for themselves when their patients compensated by the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) will need to be seen again for follow-up that they will be deemed clinically relevant.
For example, a patient on sick leave for a fracture normally takes eight weeks to recover. He currently has to see his doctor every three weeks to have a form completed allowing him to keep his compensation. However, his doctor can now decide to see him again in eight weeks.
In addition, Quebec abolishes the duplication of the form for requests for long-term care accommodation.
This form is currently completed first by a professional and then by a doctor for validation. From now on, the doctor will no longer have to fill out this form twice, which will give him more time and will speed up the processing of requests for admission to the network’s services, particularly in CHSLDs.
The press release from the Ministers of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, and of Labor, Jean Boulet, specifies that these new measures were put in place in collaboration with the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ), the CNESST and several other partners, and according to their recommendations.
The Quebec government anticipates that these improvements will add more than 138,000 medical appointments per year for Quebecers.