MONTREAL – After the province’s health minister Gaetan Barrette proposed a law that would set patient quotas for family doctors, a physician coalition is striking back.
The proposal, also known as Bill 20, fits within the provincial objective of cutting costs.
It drew immediate controversy among the medical community.
Dr. Simon-Pierre Landry said it would actually reduce access to a family physician in Quebec by attacking a problem from the wrong side.
“If Bill 20 passes it will lead to chaos.”
Landry spoke to Global News just outside a summit held by the Regroupement des Médecins Omnipraticiens pour une Medicine Engagee.
The group has been a staunch opponent of the quota system ever since it was proposed late last year, and has put out ads attacking it.
At its summit Saturday and Sunday, ROME discussed a number of alternatives to quotas, such as raising the percentage of provincial family doctors.
Currently only about 48 per cent of the doctors in Quebec are family doctors, ROME is proposing to raise that percentage to as much as 60 per cent.
Eliminating the current fee-for-service system is another suggestion the group is making.
Currently a nurse or physician’s pay is tied to who sees the patient.
A more holistic fee structure “is one of the important things discussed today,” said Dr. Tara McCarty, a Montreal family physician.
“This will allow us to see more patients if we can do more acts ourselves.”
The law is being introduced as an attempt to help more Quebecers get access to general practitioners.
READ MORE: Topless activists protest Bill 20
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