Back and forth for private health: Québec solidaire wants an end to revolving doors in medicine

Christian Dubé has in hand a draft regulation to prevent doctors from increasing the number of trips to the private sector, but is slow to implement it, deplores the solidarity deputy Vincent Marissal.

The supportive critic welcomed, on Monday, the announcement by the Minister of Health, who will table a bill before the holidays in order to force young doctors to practice in the public network for a few years after leaving university.

“Better late than never. There is a recognition that we are destroying our network because we are privatizing,” says the man who has been following Minister Dubé on this issue for years.

He calls the idea a “good lead,” even if he expects “legal challenges” in its application.

But, at the same time, Vincent Marissal accuses the CAQ minister of speaking “out of both sides of his mouth” when it comes to privatization of the health system.

Indeed, Christian Dubé has on his desk a draft regulation which would discourage specialist doctors who temporarily disaffiliate from the public network to operate in the private sector before returning to the public sector.

With this regulation, Quebec would increase from 30 to 180 the number of days of notice that a doctor must give before disaffiliating. Minister Dubé’s office had not responded to our questions at the time of publication.

Vincent Marissal experienced these revolving doors recently, when his doctor paid by RAMQ offered to replace his hips within three weeks privately, for the tidy sum of $35,000.

The MP declined and instead had to wait almost two years for the same operation at the hospital.

Clinic network

Vincent Marissal is also against specialized medical clinics, to which Quebec entrusts numerous surgical interventions, paid for by RAMQ, in order to catch up since the pandemic.

These clinics, which require a Quebec permit, have increased from 49 to 68 over the last five years.

“Christian Dubé and the CAQ are partly responsible for this. They keep opening private clinics. The more private clinics you open, the more doctors will go to work there,” says the supportive critic.

The private sector under debate

The two men will debate the privatization of the health network during a two-hour questioning at the Salon rouge on Tuesday.

In addition to the proposals from Minister Dubé and Vincent Marissal, the College of Physicians also set the table by publishing, on Monday, guidelines to regulate this growing phenomenon.

The professional order of doctors bluntly demands that “the expansion of the private health sector be suspended immediately.”

To achieve this, the College proposes, among other things, that Quebec determine the difference in fees that can be charged for the same service between the public and the private sector.

And just like QS, it also calls for better guidelines for changing the status of participating doctor to that of non-participating in the public system.