Warning: This story contains sensitive subject matter. Discretion is advised.
A Quebec family doctor, whose life was thrust into the spotlight by a widely-publicized tragedy, is speaking out — frustrated by what she sees as the government’s repeated insinuations that physicians like her aren’t pulling their weight.
Dr. Isabelle Gaston is the former wife of Guy Turcotte, the disgraced cardiologist sentenced to life in prison for the 2009 murders of their two children.
While the Quebec government continues to push family doctors to take on more patients, Gaston says she simply can’t — not with the trauma she still carries.
Roughly a decade ago, Gaston transitioned from working in emergency medicine to becoming a family physician. The fast-paced, high-stress environment of the ER had become too emotionally triggering in the aftermath of her personal tragedy.
“When a child screamed, it would take me back to the trauma — to the image of my own children,” she said, speaking about the loss of her five-year-old, Olivier, and three-year-old Anne-Sophie.
Speaking to Global News on Tuesday, she said the emotional toll of that loss continues to shape both her life and her ability to practice medicine.
Gaston says she has a roster of around 400 patients — fewer than most family doctors in Quebec — and works a reduced schedule of four days a week.
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Gaston says it’s all she can manage. “Because I have a lower caseload, there’s some bonus salary that I don’t get, and I accept that.”
The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government has said it wants to “take back management rights” to force doctors to take on more patients by linking part of their remuneration to their performance.
The provincial government tabled Bill 106 in early May in the middle of negotiations to renew the framework agreement with two medical federations.
According to the government, some 1.5 million Quebecers do not have a regular doctor or healthcare professional, which corresponds to 17 per cent of the population. Of this number, 590,000 are considered vulnerable.
Bill 106 introduces a number of key principles, starting with the collective responsibility of doctors to take on more patients and the obligation of territorial departments to share them out. It also introduces a change in remuneration for front-line doctors: from now on, they will be paid on a capitation, fee-for-service and hourly basis.
Premier François Legault has repeated that about a third of family doctors in the province are not taking on enough patients.
Gaston says she takes issue with that. “I think that’s a toxic way of thinking. Treating doctors as lazy,” she said.
Gaston added that trauma is far from the only reason a physician might want a reduced schedule, and is calling on the government to be flexible.
She said a sick parent or child, among other things, are valid reasons for someone to work less.
Quebec’s Health Minister Christian Dubé has said he understands the vast majority of physicians work extremely hard, but to get more people in the province access to a family doctor, things will “need to be done differently.”
“I think there are lot of ways to make the system more efficient without bashing the wrong people,” Gaston said.
She told Global News she has thought about working in the private sector, where she could work less and make more money, but says it’s important to her to work in the public system.
She said she just wants to feel that her needs and those of her colleagues are being respected.
–with files from The Canadian Press
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