An Anglade government would ensure that every patient in Quebec has a family doctor.
This is the commitment made Tuesday by the leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ), Dominique Anglade, if his formation is brought to power on October 3.
As with every election, health will occupy a prominent place in the discourse of politicians over the coming weeks, especially from the perspective of better access to the health network.
Ms. Anglade was passing through the Outaouais to make this announcement, the outline of which already appeared in the party platform previously announced in June.
To achieve its objective, a Liberal government would see to training 1,000 more doctors than today, which corresponds to the number of doctors lacking to meet the needs of the Quebec population, according to the evaluation made by the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ).
The four faculties of medicine in Quebec should therefore welcome a total of a thousand additional students.
Since the accession to power of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) government of François Legault, the situation has continued to worsen in this regard. In 2018, it was estimated that some 400,000 people were waiting to be put on a family doctor’s patient list. There are over a million today.
The PLQ intends to give priority to people suffering from chronic illnesses or mental illnesses, seniors and people with disabilities.
The Liberals are also committed to better distribute family doctors throughout the territory and to create more family medicine groups (GMF) so that Quebec has a total of 400, some of which could operate 24 hours a day, seven days out of seven.
In addition, a Liberal government would give in to a constant demand from family doctors, by authorizing them to spend less time in the hospital, to devote themselves mainly to caring for patients in their clinic, an approach that should help relieve emergency room congestion. hospitals.
Ms. Anglade would also like, in particular, to triple by 2030 the number of “super-nurses”, these specialized nurse practitioners (IPS) who could, in many cases, for a whole series of benign health problems, take over from physicians in FMGs.
The Liberals will also want to train more nurses and recruit them elsewhere in Canada and abroad. They are also committed to abolishing compulsory overtime, a recurring request from nurses.