Thursday, Quebec health minister Christian Dubé tabled a new bill, which he said will serve as the base for negotiations with doctors going forward. However, family doctors who spoke to Global News have some ideas of their own.
One unique solution has been proposed at Lachine Hospital – doctors there say they will pay out of their own pockets to reopen their emergency room.
READ MORE: Lachine Hospital doctors say bad management to blame for partial ER closure
Lachine Hospital doctors say they’ll put up $15,000-a-year bonuses to the first three respiratory therapists who apply.
A lack of these specialists is the reason the ER partially closed this week.
Dr. Paul Saba said critical care bonuses are offered to health-care workers in MUHC hospitals downtown, but not at Lachine.
“To me, that’s administrative bureaucracy. And it’s a lot of hodgepodge,” he said. “We’re trying to fix the problem.”
In an email sent to Global News, the MUHC said collective agreements determine all incentives and premiums.
“The nurses and respiratory therapists of Lachine receive all the premiums to which they are entitled,” wrote media relations advisor, Annie-Claire Fournier.
But Dr. Saba insisted he and his colleagues are within their rights to offer this bonus.
“It’s not illegal for us to provide incentives for people who want to come to our hospital,” he said.
READ MORE: Legault threatens to penalize Quebec family doctors who don’t take on more patients
The health minister declined a request for an interview about Lachine Hospital, but on Thursday, Dubé tabled Bill 11, which he said was an opening to talk to doctors about their ideas on how to better manage the network.
After threats from Premier François Legault to penalize doctors if they didn’t take on more patients, Dubé explained he was adopting a more collaborative tone and hoped to modernize a system plagued by a massive labour shortage and technical issues.
“I think all the things we have learned during the pandemic, I think we’ll change the way we deal with our health system,” Dubé told reporters at the National Assembly.
He said as an example, Quebec was able to organize 100,000 appointments a day for COVID-19 vaccines. “We proved that’s doable. The technology is there.”
However, family doctors told Global News there’s a long way to go to become efficient.
“For instance, when I’m in the emergency room, I use five different (types of) software,” said Dr. Simon-Pierre Landry, a family doctor in Mont Tremblant.
“Each software has its own password. Once I measured how long it took me to just put in those passwords. In an eight-hour shift, it was about 30 minutes,” Dr. Landry explained.
READ MORE: Montreal family doctors angered by threat to penalize those who don’t take on more patients
He said 25 per cent of his time is dedicated to tasks that could be completed by other professionals, such as renewing prescriptions and filling out paperwork.
“And the taxpayer is paying me the big bucks, but not for stuff which I’m actually trained to do, which is treating sick people,” he said.