Health Network | Specialist doctors call for moratorium on compressions

(Montreal and Quebec) The Federation of Specialist Physicians of Quebec (FMSQ) is calling for an “immediate moratorium” on cuts affecting direct patient services in the Quebec public health network “until a complete and rigorous evaluation has been carried out”.

The union “strongly” denounces the current budget cuts. He believes that these cuts will worsen an “already critical situation”, which will limit access to care.

“We are worried,” said the president of the FMSQ, Dr.^r Vincent Oliva, during a press briefing held in Montreal. “What we see is that it is not true that there is no impact on care. It is not true to say that the impacts are minimal. »

The vice-president of the FMSQ, D^r Serge Legault cited the example of the abolition of the equivalent of 12 administrative agent positions at the Service Request Dispatch Center (CRDS), the appointment center for specialist doctors. Specialist doctors, notably from the CHUM, have reported that appointment slots have remained free since these cuts, due to the absence of employees to make appointments.

According to the D^r Legault, these compressions are detrimental to catch-up surgery. “The latest figures show that operating rooms are open at 72% of the pre-pandemic level,” he said.

In addition to a moratorium, medical specialists are requesting an analysis of each budget reduction “to assess the real impacts on the quality and access to care”. They also want this information to be communicated to the population.

Santé Québec wants to cut 1.5 billion in expenses by forcing health establishments to return to budget balance. Health Minister Christian Dubé says that achieving this objective is “non-negotiable”.

“First of all, the FMSQ, we all know it, [est] in negotiations, then they want more money,” said François Legault heading into question period. “Secondly, as we know, all health budgets are growing by 3% over the year. So it’s important to respect budgets over the year,” he said.

As The Press reported last week, the president of specialist doctors calls on his members to denounce “any situation detrimental to patients” linked to the return to a balanced budget.

“Cutting a billion from a network already exhausted by pretending that it will not affect patient services is not serious,” deplores the D^r Oliva in his missive.

Reprieve for teleconsultations with specialists

Minister Christian Dubé and medical specialists agree to extend the agreement on teleconsultations beyond 1^is January to avoid effects on the patient.

A similar agreement was also concluded with the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ).

The Minister of Health confirmed having reached an agreement with the Federation of Specialist Physicians of Quebec (FMSQ) upon his arrival at Parliament on Thursday. The parties chose to keep the agreement in place – which was to expire on December 31, while they found common ground.

“I said telemedicine was here to stay. […] What we found with one of the two federations was to be able to have a memorandum of understanding for a few months, until the negotiations were completed. Then after that, what is important is the patient. I did not want the negotiations to interfere in patient service,” the minister briefly explained.

Family doctors are outraged by the offer made by the Legault government for remuneration for their teleconsultations. Quebec offers them an amount of $6.22 per full block of five minutes, as reported The Press last week. The FMSQ confirmed that it had also received “an offer aimed at lowering prices and reviewing the criteria for access to telemedicine, which goes against its deployment”.