The Quebec health system is deteriorating. Despite government interventions, statistics show that the population has less and less access to medical services. A serious situation when we consider that the population of Quebec is aging rapidly.
In October 2022, I wrote in these pages that the number of doctors in Quebec was 2.63 per 1000 inhabitants (2021). The situation has deteriorated. From now on, there are only 2.55 doctors per 1000 inhabitants (2023). The average for OECD countries is 3.6 doctors per 1000 inhabitants.
To reach the OECD average, we would immediately have to add around 6,650 doctors. We are far from it, since the Minister of Health only promises 660 more doctors by 2027.
Furthermore, almost a quarter of Quebec’s 22,917 doctors are over 60 years old. And under the pressure of immigration, the Quebec population is increasing at a dazzling rate.
In addition, nearly 2/3 of new doctors are women. However, and this is not a criticism, but a fact, female doctors spend more time with their children than male doctors. This is a lot of time wasted treating patients compared to the old cohort of doctors, who were predominantly male.
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Damage to be expected
If the number of doctors does not increase much more quickly, the health of the Quebec population will deteriorate, which will result in shortfalls in revenue for governments that will be much greater than the savings they think they will make by investing poorly. in health.
For example, Canada has only 2.6 hospital beds per 1000 inhabitants, while the average for OECD countries is 4.3 beds per 1000 inhabitants.
This deficit partly explains the congestion in emergency rooms and the endless waiting lists for non-urgent operations.
One of the rare places where Quebec does better than others is its number of nurses per 1000 inhabitants, with 9.3, while the OECD average is 9.2.
Perverse effects
Furthermore, transfers of doctors to the private sector are accelerating, particularly among general practitioners. The result is that these doctors treat fewer patients, which reduces the number of doctors truly available per 1000 inhabitants.
Finally, government pressure to increase the individual productivity of doctors has significant and costly perverse effects. Thus, many doctors now refuse to spend more than 20 minutes per medical consultation and also refuse to treat more than one or two medical problems at a time.
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The result of this terrible approach is to artificially increase the number of medical consultations, unduly delay medical treatments and cause patients to lose many hours of work as they have to wait for more appointments.
In short, we are heading towards a collapse of our public health system.