Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette issued a warning Wednesday to family doctors – saying they are not taking in patients fast enough.
Barrette said he acknowledges doctors are taking on more patients in accordance with Bill 20, but that they will face a a 30 per cent pay cut if they don't increase patient loads by the end of this year
Over 1 million Quebecers have signed up with an online registry created by the government to match them up with a family physician in the past five years - half of those in the past two years.
The Barrette said, however, that nearly another million need to register by Dec. 31 to reach the goal of 85 per cent of Quebecers having access to a family doctor and he says it's up to doctors to make that happen.
“We know that many, many doctors, not all of them, but many of them, are part-timers. It is impossible, for instance, to enroll enough patients to get to those targets and it is also impossible if you're part-time to have an 80 per cent fidelity rate. That's impossible. You have to be there,” he said.
Barrette said he's asking general practitioners to work the equivalent of 42 weeks a year.
The doctor's federation points out its members still have to spend 40 per cent of their time in hospitals and said the online registry sometimes doesn't work.
Barrette said 75,000 people per month need to register for a family doctor until December and only then will the doctors avoid penalties.
