‘My patience has run out,’ Legault says of doctors not working hard enough

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QUEBEC – Prime Minister François Legault says he is ready to play hard with family doctors who are unwilling to take on a greater workload.

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Noting that successive Quebec governments since 2002 have failed to get doctors to accept more patients, Legault said he is ready to pass a law requiring them to do so if negotiations with his association fail.

“We have to change this culture,” Legault told a news conference Wednesday morning. “It is not easy, but my patience has run out. I believe that Quebecers have the right to have a family doctor ”.

Legault acknowledged that most doctors work hard, but said there is a minority, a few thousand, who need to step up. He said he expects a backlash from his association, the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec (FMOQ).

“I would prefer a negotiated settlement, but if necessary we will pass a law,” Legault said.

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Legault’s comments came a day after he revealed that the government had legally obtained a list of doctors who currently have fewer than 1,000 patients under their care from the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec.

Legault said Tuesday that he wanted to give the names of the doctors on the list to regional health authorities so they could talk to them, but added he wasn’t sure if it was legal to do so.

On Wednesday he went further and said that if Quebec requires a law to share that data, it will work to pass a law.

He noted that former liberal health minister Gaétan Barrette tried for four years to get doctors to move, including adopting Bill 20, which included a 30 percent wage penalty for those who failed to meet Quebec productivity standards. The sanctions were never imposed and the bill did not take effect.

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Legault also said his own government had tried for three years to get action taken, without success.

The FMOQ “is a very strong lobby,” Legault said. “The government of PQ, the liberal government did not resist. I will resist.

“I would rather have a solution that we both agree on. Family physicians must understand that they must take responsibility for Quebecers. I think it is about time we solved this problem. It’s very important. If you don’t have a solid first line, then the whole system has a problem. “

Legault made his remarks an hour after the opposition accused him of “meddling” by asking for a blacklist of doctors who he believes should work harder.

The leader of the Parti Québécois house, Joël Arseneau, said both announcements are “worrying” and reveal that the government’s approach involves “a lot of improvisation”.

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Arseneau said he was surprised to hear Legault admit that he did not know what could be done “legally” with the list of doctors he had obtained from RAMQ.

The government also tried to bypass the FMOQ to negotiate directly with its members.

“There is a form of interference by the prime minister in the healthcare system that is concerning,” Arseneau told reporters.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Québec solidarity house, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, lamented that the prime minister has “boasted” of obtaining the list of those “bad lazy people who he will punish with a whip.”

“Here we see the CAQ style in its purest form,” Nadeau-Dubois said. “(It) implies pointing the finger, finding the culprit, in short … a smokescreen to avoid taking responsibility.”

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Nadeau-Dubois said the government was launching a “superficial” attack on the lack of access to health care, adding that it is time for a coordinated approach to ensure front-line health services.

In the 2018 elections, the CAQ promised Quebecers that everyone would have a family doctor before the end of his four-year term. At that time there were 400,000 Quebecers on waiting lists. The total has doubled to 800,000 now.

Presse Canadienne contributed to this report.

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