(Quebec) The standoff between family doctors and Christian Dubé is getting tougher. The Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) is putting the Minister of Health on notice, who wants to force them to do more. The union deplores having been presented with a fait accompli.
The FMOQ sent a formal notice to Minister Christian Dubé on Wednesday. The doctors’ union criticizes the Legault government for not having consulted them before authorizing a draft regulation which will force them to take care of more vulnerable patients in addition to giving the minister access to medical clinic data to “act » on the first line offer.
The president of the FMOQ, Dr Marc-André Amyot had indicated to The Press welcome Quebec’s decision to proceed by regulation “with incomprehension and great disappointment”. According to him, the government is trying to place “the odium of the mammoth’s failure” on doctors.
The FMOQ explained Friday that sending a formal notice to the minister is “a call for dialogue.” We also want to “break the mold” according to which Quebec presents doctors with a fait accompli rather than consulting them in advance, explained spokesperson Jean-Pierre Dion.
The FMOQ asks the minister to refrain from publishing his draft regulation, which must be published in the Official Gazette within two weeks. A 45-day consultation period will then follow its publication.
The draft regulation aims to implement certain provisions of the Act to increase the supply of front-line services and improve supply management, adopted in June 2022.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Dr Marc-André Amyot, president of the FMOQ
In a letter sent to the minister last week, Dr Amyot writes that the law, like the implementing regulations, “transgresses [le] right to association and its corollary, the right to negotiation”.
“Telling us that we will have the opportunity, like all Quebec citizens, to comment on a draft regulation as part of a consultation inherent to a publication in the Official Gazette, is unacceptable and constitutes a negation of our fundamental rights. You are compromising your commitment to establish a climate of collaboration with us,” the president wrote.
The FMOQ has not made public the content of the formal notice.
End of inadmissibility in Quebec
The minister’s office announced on Friday that there is no question of backing down on the publication of the draft regulation which received the green light from the Council of Ministers last week.
“The minister is following his game plan and respecting his commitment made to Quebecers in the spring of 2022 when the law was adopted to increase the supply of front-line services. We have a duty to treat the most vulnerable people as a priority, it is a question of the social responsibility of doctors,” it was said on Friday.
Basically, family doctors say they are in favor of the minister’s new requests, who notably wishes to force them to prioritize the care of more vulnerable orphan patients, such as those suffering from cancer or serious illnesses.
According to Mr. Dubé, some 13,000 vulnerable patients are still waiting to be cared for by a family doctor or a family medicine group (GMF).
“I want to bring this back to zero,” illustrated the minister, who asked the doctors for another spin.
“In the current state of shortage of medical manpower, it is illusory to believe that family doctors, alone, could overcome the counters. There will always be a certain number of patients belonging to this clientele,” writes Dr.r Amyot in his letter of February 5.
Furthermore, family doctors agree with the minister’s desire to have better access to data on the availability of medical clinics. However, they say they fear that this will be accompanied by sanctions for doctors and increase administrative tasks.
Mr. Dubé has already indicated that he does not intend to impose sanctions on doctors who do not, for example, take care of enough patients. The fact remains that Bill 20, adopted at the time under Minister Gaétan Barrette, could allow him to do so.
In 2022, the Legault government and the FMOQ have concluded an agreement for the care of at least 500,000 orphan patients by deploying in particular the Front Line Access Center (GAP) which allows a patient without a family doctor to be taken care of by a GMF and not a single general practitioner. Some 900,000 patients are registered with the GAP as of January 15.