FMOQ sues Health Minister Dubé over autonomy rights

Posted December 10, 2024 11:52 am.
The Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec (FMOQ) is taking Health Minister Christian Dubé to court over the provisions of a regulation that infringe on the professional autonomy of family doctors.
In a statement released on Monday, the FMOQ refers to the regulations in Bill 11 that were adopted by the Quebec government last May.
It states that it “prevents family physicians from exercising their clinical judgment in registering patients requiring special monitoring.” This regulation requires general practitioners to prioritize patients registered on the list of the Guichet d’accès à la première ligne (GAP) to improve access to health care.
The federation, which represents 10,000 family doctors in Quebec, has denounced certain blind spots in the regulation; most notable that doctors cannot register people with neurocognitive disorders and newborns in the GAP.
“We believe that the government cannot continue to impose such regulations without consulting and negotiating with family physicians. If a dialogue had taken place from the start, we could have avoided rules that, in practice, reduce access to a family physician instead of improving it,” said the FMOQ.
It believes that the rules imposed on them ignore the clinical expertise of family physicians.
Minister Dubé responded on X saying that “there is always room for improvement,” but he noted that the GAP generates nearly 100,000 appointments per month. He added that “in many cases,” this allows citizens to avoid going to the emergency room.
The FMOQ said that it was contesting the validity of the regulations from Bill 11 and that it was asking the Superior Court of Quebec “to order the Quebec government to put in place a real dispute resolution mechanism to avoid such situations.”
Currently, negotiations are underway between Quebec and the FMOQ to renew the agreement about the working conditions for family doctors in the public network.
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–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews