Front line access counter: Quebec and the FMOQ reach an agreement

Negotiations between the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, and the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) regarding the Front Line Access Center (GAP) come to an end: the two parties announced on Thursday the conclusion of agreement in principle.

For the moment, the details of this agreement have not been revealed.

In a statement, Minister Dubé affirmed that the progress made with this agreement will make it possible to maintain certain important principles, such as collective registration, while facilitating better access.

Thank you to my colleague Sonia LeBel and to the doctors who continued to provide service to patients during this negotiation.

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THErenewal of the framework agreement. We will not comment further forTHEmoment”,”text”:”The work is not finished. Now, we will devote our energy to negotiating the renewal of the framework agreement. We will not comment further at this time”}}”>The work is not finished. Now, we will devote our energy to negotiating the renewal of the framework agreement. We will not comment further at this time.we read in a statement from Ms. LeBel.

There FMOQ wrote on X that the big winners are you, the population.

Patients taken hostage

The agreement concluded in 2022 by the Legault government with the FMOQ regarding the financing of GAP expired on 1^er June.

Signed two years ago, the letter of understanding at the heart of the standoff provided for the payment to groups of family doctors (GMF) of a lump sum of $120 per year for each orphan patient taken care of by the through the GAP.

Noting a radical drop in the number of appointments since the 1^er June, the government appealed in the last weeks to professionalism general practitioners, thanking those who, despite everything, continued to give time to the GAP.

On more than one occasion, Minister Dubé accused the FMOQ to take patients hostage, which Dr. Amyot defended well. The opposition, for its part, held the government responsible for the impasse.

Reduced availability?

In a press scrum earlier Thursday, just before speaking before the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal at the Palais des congrès, Mr. Dubé said that talks with the FMOQ – which he always presents as the union family doctors – seemed to have unblocked in the last few days.

What I understood yesterday from our negotiators is that there has been significant progressindicated the minister, before adding that the two parties had agreed on the fact that that needed an answer today.

Present at the Palais des Congrès, the president of the FMOQMarc-André Amyot, also recognized that the talks were going well.

Dr. Amyot, however, warned that the availability offered to GAPeven in the event of an agreement, will perhaps no longer be what they already were.

In the circumstancescertain general practitioners who had decided to delay their retirement to provide services to GAP may have retired, while Ontario doctors who had come to help in Outaouais have now returned to Ontario, he gave as an example.

With information from The Canadian Press