Patient groups skeptical of Quebec’s health-care reform plan

Quebec’s health-care reform, announced yesterday, is sparking optimism and skepticism.

“It’s an ambitious plan, but there are lots of good things,” Dr. Judy Morris, an ER doctor at Sacré-Coeur and president of the Quebec Emergency Physicians’ Association.

She thinks the promised expansion of home care will help. She also likes new phone lines people will be asked to call before going to an ER or clinic, in the hope they might be directed to a pharmacist or another health-care professional equipped to solve their problem.

“Adding another layer where they can call, ask questions and be directed to the right place, is certainly going to help,” she said, pointing out that across the province, people go to emergency rooms for problems that can be solved elsewhere.

Groups representing patients are not quite as sure about the phone line.

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“If it’s for something chronic or if it’s for something like, say, mental illness, I need more than just a one-off. I need someone that will do the follow-up with me,” said Amy Ma of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Patients’ Committee. “We need to have a certain amount of continuity.”

Ma hopes Quebec’s reform will put a particular focus on vulnerable groups.

“Whether it be the Indigenous, whether it be people with disabilities, people in precarious employment, precarious housing, it needs to be centred on those people’s needs so that nobody gets left behind,” she said.

“Otherwise, all of these fancy reforms will do nothing to close the gap of inequities in our society.“

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Lucy Shapiro, vice president of the Jewish General Hospital Users Committee wonders if people will buy in to the phone line designed to spread out primary care.

“I don’t know if it’ll appease the general public to have (access to) pharmacists and nurses if a patient really wants to see a doctor,” she said.

Recruitment is a big part of the government’s plan, and that’s where Shapiro thinks Quebec should focus its efforts.

“We need to hire more doctors and make it attractive for doctors who get educated here to stay in Quebec,” she said.

Morris thinks the promised end of mandatory overtime and the creation of more full-time jobs will help.

“If that kind of mentality changes on the ground, we probably will see people wanting to go and sign up, and at least not leave their jobs because they’re burned out,” she said.

Patients and doctors will be watching plan implementation closely.