The lack of doctors continues to cause concern in certain regions of Quebec. In Centre-du-Québec, it could even become an electoral issue.
Since 1er June, the Fortierville emergency room is closed all night. A situation strongly denounced by local elected officials, who urge the government to come to their aid.
To make itself heard, the MRC de Bécancour launched an advertising offensive in the media and on social networks. “The Fortierville emergency department needs its repair doctors! […] The community is mobilizing,” reads one of its posters.
Repair doctors
Fortierville is a small rural community of 700 people between the regional municipalities of Lotbinière and Bécancour. Its small emergency, where one or two doctors work at a time, also serves the surrounding municipalities. When it is closed, patients in critical situations must go to the Hôtel-Dieu d’Arthabaska (in Victoriaville) 50 minutes away by car, or to Trois-Rivières 1 hour away.
“We are not a population of 100,000 people, but the population that is here, it needs it,” argues the prefect of the MRC, Mario Lyonnais, who will be a candidate for the Conservative Party of Quebec in the next election. “There are people from all over coming to our emergency room. People from the MRC de l’Érable, from Lotbinière, because we have really good service. »
For Mr. Lyonnais, “it’s sure” that it will be discussed locally during the election campaign. The Parti Québécois candidate, Philippe Dumas, also gave his support to the steps of the MRC in the emergency file.
The file has gradually bogged down in recent years. Opening hours had already been reduced for the first time in 2020, when the emergency stopped working from midnight.
Following this, the departure of many doctors weakened the entire service. According to the CIUSSS de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec (MCQ), out of a team of ten people, five then packed up to retire or to redirect their careers.
Those who remained had to carry the service at arm’s length, underlines the prefect Lyonnais.
It is in this context that the CIUSSS decided to use the program of convenience store physicians, which funds the dispatch of physicians to remote regions on an ad hoc basis.
However, Fortierville has not had access to this program since the beginning of the summer, which has led to another reduction in opening hours. Rather than closing at midnight, the emergency room now ceases its activities at 8 p.m.
Less deplorable than elsewhere
Why did the emergency doctors stop their help? Because only emergencies open 24 hours a day have access to the program, argues the Ministry of Health. In recent months, the emergency department of Fortierville benefited from it under an exception.
“The Fortierville emergency department no longer qualifies under the terms of the agreement with the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec (FMOQ), since it is no longer open 24-7”, indicated to the To have to ministry spokesman Robert Maranda.
According to the FMOQ, it is a matter of “equity”. “The doctors who would go there would not necessarily go elsewhere,” explains its spokesperson, Jean-Pierre Dion. Chibougamau, for example, also lacks convenience doctors, and the municipality is much more isolated than Fortierville, he argues.
To bring convenience doctors back to Fortierville, he continued, the FMOQ’s agreement with the Quebec government should be reviewed. However, we would then risk undressing Pierre to dress Paul, he explains. The FMOQ alleges that there is currently a shortage of 1,000 general practitioners in Quebec to meet the needs of the population.
At the CIUSSS MCQ, we are counting on the recruitment of new doctors rather than on the program of repair doctors to alleviate the problem. The “modulation of services” is “exceptional”, affirms the spokesperson, Caroline Morin. “At no time does the CIUSSS MCQ question Fortierville’s service offer. »