Ban non-participant status in the public system: Quebec College of Physicians

The Quebec College of Physicians says that measures such as forcing young doctors to practice for at least five years in the public network would no longer be necessary if Quebec prohibited non-participant status in the public health system, as Ontario does.

This is what the president of the Collège des médecins, Dr. Mauril Gaudreault, said on Tuesday, while he appeared before the parliamentary committee studying Bill 83, which would require new doctors to work in the public sector for five years.

The College also proposes to suspend the expansion of medicine to the private sector “until a more rigorous professional and legal framework is put in place.”

“There will certainly be a transition period; I fully agree with that. But, in the meantime, we must also stop the expansion of the private sector. The private sector ends now. And so does disaffiliation,” said Dr. Gaudreault.

According to him, it took “courage” for the College of Physicians to make such recommendations to the government. And it will also take courage from parliamentarians to move forward with the aim of promoting the public network.

The College, however, disapproves of the idea of ​​forcing doctors to practice in Quebec. “We really think that goes too far and we don’t agree with that at all,” Dr. Gaudreault said.

Canadian Medical Association

Before the College, the Canadian Medical Association had argued for a path other than coercion.

It proposes to make the public network attractive to doctors, by correcting the irritants that make it unattractive, whether it is the dilapidated state of certain health establishments, delays in the implementation of IT, lack of access to operating rooms, shortage of nurses and other professionals, for example.

“Forcing doctors to stay will not solve these problems. If major changes to the public health system are not made, we believe that once their obligation is fulfilled, many doctors will seek to quickly leave the public network,” said Dr. Jean-Joseph Condé, spokesperson and member of the board of directors of the Canadian Medical Association.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé noted, however, that even if some candidates were put off by these constraints, others would remain interested in medicine. “We still turn away 4,000 doctors per year in our medical schools, 4,000. I can’t believe that if there are a few who don’t like it, that there won’t be some, among the 4,000, who will want to get involved in this process.”

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews