Quebec doctors react to Bill 106: ‘We can't meet those demands'
The Corner Booth
Doctors in Quebec say they're already stretched beyond their limits.
Now, as Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé is tabling Bill 106, our province's physicians are once again sounding the alarm over the disconnect between the CAQ government and those on the front lines on how to improve access to health care.
The bill would give the government authority to decide how health professionals are compensated. In theory, this could incentivize doctors to take on more patients, but according to family physicians Laura Sang and Christina Bianchini, this week's guests on The Corner Booth with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand, this plan isn't pinpointing the root causes plaguing our system.
'I worry about the way that we're targeting physicians specifically, with a lot of undertones that we're not working hard enough, that this is only going to exacerbate the problem by having more physicians burn out, potentially leave the province, or even leave medicine altogether,' said Sang, who practises in St-Jerome.
'I'm already doing as much as I can,' said Bianchini, who practises in N.D.G. 'If I were to have another 1,000 patients rostered under me, the wait time to see me is 3-4 weeks, that'll grow to 3-4 months. Nothing is lining up for us with this solution.'
The pair concluded by sharing their concerns for the future, while also saying there are ways to improve access to health care from their perspective, but doctors don't feel included in the process. Sang's message to the health minister: 'Please consult us.'
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