No surveillance of doctors under Bill 2: Health Minister Dubé

Health Minister Christian Dubé announced Thursday that he is abandoning the surveillance measures provided for in Bill 2, his third attempt to “reconcile” with doctors.

Nothing has been going right in the healthcare system since Bill 2 was passed under closure on Oct. 25, changing the way doctors are paid, imposing performance targets on them, and threatening them with sanctions.

This law also provides for the establishment of a system to monitor doctors.

On Thursday, Dubé and his colleague at the Treasury, France-Élaine Duranceau, formally committed to “never” applying the monitoring provisions, even though they will remain in the law.

This is the third setback for the government. Last week, the two ministers said they were “reaching out” to doctors by suspending two other provisions.

They announced that they would maintain the bonus paid to specialists for initial consultations. This bonus was to be abolished and the money redistributed.

They are also maintaining the 30 per cent supplement that was paid to family medicine group (GMF) doctors to cover certain administrative costs.

Instead of taking a piecemeal approach, the government should suspend Bill 2 altogether until the situation calms down, said Marc Tanguay, the official opposition spokesperson on health issues.

“It is demonstrating itself that its law is poorly drafted, unenforceable, and repressive,” added Vincent Marissal of Québec solidaire.

Surveillance

More specifically, on Thursday, the government committed to not applying sections 141 to 163 of its law.

These sections aim to ensure the “attendance” of doctors in the event of pressure tactics that would affect services to the public. In particular, they provide for the appointment of supervisors in the workplace and a national inspector.

According to the legislation, the Minister of Health must implement these sections by ministerial order.

“We put it in the law in case we needed it. And since we want to make a gesture of reconciliation, the commitment we are making today is to say that it will never be applied,” Dubé said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Reaction from doctors

The reaction from the Quebec federation of medical specialists (FMSQ) was swift. Minutes after the announcement, FMSQ president Vincent Oliva stated that talks would only resume if the government suspended Bill 2.

“I am surprised that the government is still not taking into account the historic mobilization of physicians and many citizens against the adverse effects of this law, as well as the opinions of numerous experts, patients, and interest groups, including the Collège des médecins, who are also calling for the suspension of the law,” he said.

For its part, the Quebec federation of family doctors (FMOQ) also said that the law should be suspended.

“We can’t wait for the CAQ to withdraw measure after measure after measure, week after week,” said Marc-André Amyot, president of FMOQ.

Amyot said that Dubé continued to justify the law and said that he would prefer to negotiation with someone.

“We are asking for another negotiator. I said so,” he said. “The bond of trust has been broken.”

Amyot also said that he had requested to meet privately with the president of Treasury Board Duranceau, who he said seemed to show more of a willingness to find a path forward.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews