In order to improve access to a family doctor, the Legault government announced on Friday the addition of 660 places for medical students over the next four years.
More specifically, 74 places will be added across the province during the next school year, followed by 165 additional admissions for the years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. There will then be 256 more students in 2026-2027. These increases may be adapted each year according to the current reality and the needs on the ground.
“This is very good news, but I would admit that we had to put pressure on this winter to remind ministerial authorities of this commitment made during the election campaign,” declared the first vice-president of the Federation of General Practitioners. of Quebec, the Dr Sylvain Dion.
During the election campaign last September, the Legault government promised to recruit 660 additional doctors within four years. The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, and the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, announced Friday that the project would materialize.
The College of Physicians of Quebec also welcomes this increase in the number of medical admissions. “This is another step in the right direction to improve access to healthcare,” said President Dr.r Mauril Gaudreault.
The Challenge for Family Physicians
The Dr Sylvain Dion, who is also a family doctor and teacher at Lac-Etchemin, however, raises a few issues in connection with this additional recruitment. “If we admit more medical students, it takes people to train them. It will require reorganization and incentives for doctors to commit to teaching. »
Moreover, he believes that there is still “work to be done to promote family medicine”. “A majority of these 660 students must go into family medicine when they have completed their first four years of medicine,” he says. In the last decade, 535 places intended for the training of family medicine students have rather remained vacant.
For his part, Minister Dubé wished to recall that his team is still working on other solutions to improve access to the first line, such as the first line access window (GAP) and family medicine groups. (GMF).