Education Minister Yves Bolduc has announced that he won't be keeping the controversial $215,000 bonus he received for taking on new patients as a practicing physician.

Bolduc said at a press conference Wednesday that he will return half of the bonus back to the RAMQ Quebec medical authority and the other half to charity.

According to RAMQ rules, Bolduc might have had to return about half of the bonus because he did not treat the patients for the minimal time required. The RAMQ is planning to issue a report on the affair three weeks from now.

Bolduc made a brief statement Wednesday morning and did not answer questions. He did not name the charity that would receive the money but said that it would be related to patient care.

"I had the opportunity to discuss with the premier and as you know, I already mentioned that I would pay whatever the RAMQ deemed appropriate because I did not treat the patients for over 12 months, so I'm saying now that I will do that. But in addition, considering the situation and the public debate that it caused, I am committing to giving the equivalent amount to a charity connected with patients, as a way to honour the patients that I was unable to treat for more than 12 months, so the entire sum will be giving in good faith and in a voluntary manner."

Bolduc had been under fire from the opposition Parti Quebecois, who gave him a 24-hour ultimatum to return the cash Tuesday. 

Respected former health minister Claude Castonguay had previously said that Bolduc should quit over the affair.

PQ health critic Agnes Maltais said returning the funds is not good enough.

“Mr. Bolduc had taken the most profit he could from the program that he has personally written.  He took the maximum; he should give back the maximum,” she said.

Health Minister Gaetan Barette said he now worries the Bolduc affair may weaken his negotiating position with Quebec doctors. He now plans to review the bonus system, but claims it “has no relationship with this affair.”

The provincial RAMQ medical authority said recently that they were reviewing the bonus, which Bolduc was given for taking on orphaned patients while serving both as a physician and an opposition MNA.

He stopped treating those patients after being named to cabinet after 18 months in opposition.

Premier Couillard had said that he would only comment on the affair after the RAMQ issued its report.

-With a file from The Canadian Press