Can a new plan that results in the Outaouais losing 30 doctors really be considered progress? Quebec’s National Assembly has fast-tracked a new law regulating how family doctors are paid. Introduced in May, Bill 106 was brought to parliament on October 24 and passed within 24 hours, cutting off almost all discussion.
Who among our elected officials wants to go on record supporting legislation that effectively reduces access to family doctors? Yet that appears to be what this law accomplishes. The stated goal of Bill 106 is to modernize physician compensation — a mix of payment per patient, per type of patient, and by time spent with each one.
At first glance, having doctors take on more patients might sound like a sensible solution to Quebec’s growing number of “orphaned” patients. But doctors themselves have called it insulting. With already overloaded schedules and rising administrative demands, expecting physicians to somehow see more patients in the same hours is unrealistic and out of touch with daily medical practice.
For decades, family doctors in Quebec worked together in GMFs — Groupes de médecine familiale, or Family Medicine Groups — a model designed for cooperation and continuity of care. Doctors in these networks shared files, coordinated schedules, and provided same-day appointments within the group. Typically, one doctor was available for evening appointments from 5 pm to 9 pm, with booking lines opening mid-afternoon.
That successful system has now been dismantled. The government claims it was too complex to administer under the new compensation model. The result? Patients lose the flexibility and responsiveness the old system provided, and doctors must now squeeze urgent visits into already packed daytime schedules. Instead of a child with an earache being seen by an on-call doctor in the evening, the family physician must somehow fit that visit in between regular appointments — an arrangement that helps no one.
This change shows a troubling disregard for both doctors and patients. Physicians are exhausted, while patients are being pushed through the system on what feels like a conveyor belt.
Pontiac MNA and former provincial health critic André Fortin has sounded repeated alarms about the impact of this new law. The Outaouais association of family doctors warns that about 30 physicians are preparing to leave the province, retire, or change specialties. With 21 positions already vacant and several retirements delayed, the situation is beyond
reason.
Ottawa, meanwhile, is recruiting 200 doctors. There’s little mystery about what happens next for health care in the Pontiac — and the outlook is grim as Quebec moves toward another election year.