Your reactions to the editorial “Let’s pay doctors differently”

Many readers (more than a hundred) commented on the editorial by Stéphanie Grammond* published on Wednesday on the remuneration of doctors. Here is an overview of the emails received.

Posted at 2:00 p.m.

History error

I agree with you on the remuneration of doctors, but I will go further. Basically, doctors render public services paid for by the state. Just like judges, engineers in the Department of Transport, nurses in hospitals or any other professional who renders public services provided by the State, doctors should be on salary. It is a historic error to have allowed physicians to consider themselves entrepreneurs.

Francois Legault

endless waiting

No matter what, it will always be the same problem. I am 79 years old and I have been waiting for a doctor for several years. I think I will have to wait until the end of my days.

Jacqueline White

take care of me

For the past few years, in January, the television advertisements of the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec have come back to us, with the slogan “We take care of you! “. I would love to one day be able to be one of those “you”. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever be part of this select club. All the proposed solutions, if implemented, would help our sick health system. Fee-for-service can no longer be considered and must necessarily be replaced. To solve the problem, why not add “common sense” to the equation.

Pierre Desforges

Access to specialists

To the list of suggestions, I would add a few others, including simpler or more direct access to medical specialists. Currently, when a general practitioner makes a request for a specialized examination ranging from the simplest to the most complex, the follow-up cannot be provided directly by the specialist doctor concerned. The result must be sent to the requesting doctor, who must make a new request either to the specialist doctor who will decide what to do next, or to the hospital for a new test. This back-and-forth paid each time on a fee-for-service basis lengthens delays, overloads the system and generates unnecessary costs. This is without taking into account the collateral damage caused to both patients and caregivers.

Monique Regnier

For a pay scale

Physicians should be salaried, paid on a salary scale according to specialty and experience. In addition, their work should be evaluated on the quality of their service, and improved for the best. Let’s stop considering each doctor as a separate business and we will save a lot of money.

Jacques Bournival

Low risk

It will not change much, there are not too many nurses because there is a crying need for staff in hospitals. Our doctors will therefore fall back on the fact that there are no nurses to explain that they can see their patients. Eventually, the list will continue to grow. The doctors are not taking a big risk in saying yes to the agreement.

Daniel Girard

Wasted time

By being paid on a fee-for-service basis, doctors have to waste a lot of time filling out forms to identify these “acts”, with all the codes… All the other people who work in the health field are on salary, why not the doctors ?

Ginette LeBlanc

And prevention?

I am 74 years old and in fairly good health. My family doctor now refuses to let me have an annual exam. It seems to me that at my age, an annual blood test followed by an examination is not exaggerated, it is prevention. Prevention: a word I don’t often hear from our health managers.

Michele Paquin, Bromont

Services not rendered

What are you waiting for to file a class action lawsuit against the government? I am 68 years old and 40% of my taxes go to the health care system each year while I have not been able to have a family doctor for three years. No services. It’s simple, I want a refund for services not rendered. Reimburse me for this money and I will be able to afford a private family doctor quickly. We need to act now. That’s enough !

Pierre Chartrand

Who benefits from it?

Very good ideas. It remains to be seen why such simple things are never implemented. I’m sure there are plenty of other solutions that would be applicable. The question is: who benefits from such complexity?

Pierre Braze, Eastman

Optimize your income

Agree with this approach, which will unfortunately be decried by too many doctors, who abuse useless appointments or limit the consultation to a single subject or optimize their income by shamelessly exploiting the billing manual, etc.

Claude Menard, Laval

Let’s dream in color

Minister Christian Dubé dreams in color. Nothing will change concerning the medical services offered to the population as long as we do not work to modify the mentality of the new generations of doctors. For change to occur, personal interests will have to take a back seat and concern for the common good will have to become second nature to these new physicians. This is obviously easier said than done since it is basically a matter of encouraging the emergence of a new mentality in the population as a whole. The others first, then me. And this, without obligation and with pleasure! Yes, I know, I too dream in colors…

Yves Brissette

flushed by the system

I am 74 years old and the system has me flushed two years ago. Since then, I fill small boxes on the internet in the meantime. Revenu Québec charges me usurious interest when I am late in my responsibilities as a citizen… while I continue to pay top dollar for a service that does not even recognize me.

Michel Roy, Quebec


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