Quebec's health minister says he's making adjustments to improve access to family doctors.
Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said 915,000 Quebecers have been able to find a family doctor in the past two years.
There are still 460,000 patients looking for a doctor, but that should be resolved by the end of 2017 as the government matches patients with doctors.
"After that, year after year, on July 1, we will match doctors retiring on July 1 with the incoming, new practicing physicians, transferring their practices," said Barrette.
The government said it will use its bank of registered patients who need a general practitioner, making it easier for retiring doctors to transfer their patients to new ones.
“Basically they have a guarantee that they will have access to a new doctor when their old doctor is retiring,” said Barrette. “For doctors to enter into this process, this is a change of culture.”
“It’s never been seen. Last week, I was at the meeting in Edmonton and other health ministers were asking me how we did it. This is a change of culture, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
