Quebec health minister scraps family doctor reallocation idea

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube at the Legislative Assembly in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

Health Minister Christian Dubé says healthy Quebecers will keep their family doctor.

The minister stirred outrage last week after reports that he was considering redistributing medical appointments from people who have family doctors to people who don't.

This was one option proposed by the Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) in a study on primary care published last week.

If adopted, only the most vulnerable people with health problems would be assigned to a family doctor. Healthy Quebecers or those with minor issues would instead be directed to a modified primary care access window (GAP).

The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) had originally promised access to a family doctor for every patient.

“Quebecers who have a family doctor will keep it. We want to reassure the population,” Dubé wrote on social media platform X.

Parti Québécois leader Paul Saint-Pierre-Plamondon quickly responded on social media, calling the move "Caquist improvisation, example #283."

PQ health care critic Joël Arseneau joined in, saying the health minister "is closing the door on a scenario he seemed to support last week after being unanimously opposed."

"Another trial balloon that went nowhere. Now, let's get serious," he posted on X.

Last week, Christian Dubé wrote, again on X, that it was “far too early to move forward on any scenario proposed by experts."