Legault threatens legislation to force family doctors to take on more patients
Premier François Legault is threatening short-term legislation to force family doctors to take on more patients.
In his inaugural speech on Tuesday, he said he was getting impatient and on Wednesday, in a press scrum, he went further to say that legislation would soon be considered if doctors do not comply quickly.
With only a few months to go before the election, the Legault government and the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens (FMOQ), which refuses to take the hard way, are set to engage in an arm wrestling match.
This is not the first time that the tone has been raised and that Premier Legault has threatened to brandish the legislative stick if doctors do not submit to Quebec's ultimatum, except that now, time time is running out, as the government is in the last year of its mandate, while the situation has continued to deteriorate.
In 2018, Legault's Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) had pledged to provide a family doctor to all Quebecers by the end of the mandate. At the time, there were 400,000 patients on the waiting list. Now, there are twice as many, more than 800,000, making the promise difficult -- if not impossible -- to keep by October 2022.
To hopefully reverse this trend, the premier said he is prepared to go "as far as a bill."
The fewer patients who have a family doctor, the more crowded hospital emergency rooms and walk-in clinics become.
In the past, however, wielding the stick rather than the carrot in front of doctors has yielded few results other than mutual distrust and a growing climate of tension between Quebec and the medical profession. Former health minister Gaétan Barrette had adopted Bill 20 in 2015, providing for financial penalties to be imposed on physicians who did not meet the government's productivity targets.
To explain the constant increase in the number of patients without a doctor, the FMOQ defended itself by arguing that there is a shortage of about 1,000 family physicians in Quebec, that general practitioners are required to work in CHSLDs and hospitals, which reduces their availability in the office, and that retirements are increasing.
The federation added that it is not true that physicians have a low productivity rate, when, on average, they work about 45 hours a week.
Family physicians take between 1,000 and 2,000 patients under their wing. However, having your name on a doctor's patient list does not automatically guarantee access to care or an appointment at the desired time.
At the same time, the government wants to impose a change in the way doctors are compensated in the near future, whereby fee-for-service payment would be replaced, in part, by the number of patients on their list. Quebec believes this could also help facilitate access to a family doctor.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 20, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Nine suspects arrested in $24M gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport: Peel police
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.
Some of the winners and losers in the 2024 federal budget
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.
Gas prices across Ontario expected to climb to levels not seen since 2022, analyst says
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
O.J. Simpson was chilling with a beer on a couch before Easter, lawyer says. 2 weeks later he was dead
O.J. Simpson's last robust discussion with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was 'transitioning.'
Father of boy accused of stabbing 2 Australian clerics saw no signs of extremism, Muslim leader says
The father of a boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics in Australia saw no signs of his son’s extremism, a Muslim community leader said on Wednesday as police began arresting suspected rioters who besieged a Sydney church demanding revenge.
500 Newfoundlanders wound up on the same cruise and it turned into a rocking kitchen party
A Celebrity Apex cruise to the Caribbean this month turned into a rocking Newfoundland kitchen party when hundreds of people from Canada's easternmost province happened to be booked on the same ship.
Liberals must now sell a budget they say will help younger Canadians catch up
It's now up to the federal Liberal government to sell a spending plan it says will help younger Canadians catch up to their elders.
Ontario woman out $30K after investing in mortgage company accused of being unlicensed
An Ontario nurse is fighting to recover tens of thousands of dollars in savings she invested in a mortgage company that has since been accused of operating without a licence.
Canada is expected to win 22 medals at the Paris Olympics
Canada is expected to win a total of 22 medals, including six gold, at the Paris Summer Olympics, which open on July 26.