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, reveals a document that The Press got. Their hourly wage would be nearly $75.
Posted at 1:52 p.m.
The Quebec government and the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) are in negotiations to renew their agreement on telemedicine which will end on December 31.
According to the document obtained, the government offers family doctors remuneration per complete period of five minutes depending on their mode of consultation and their place of work: $9.95 for video and $7.46 over the phone in the office; $8.29 by video and $6.22 by telephone in establishment or at home.
A compensation that the FMOQ described as “insignificant” in a note sent to its members on Friday. “It is in fact so low that in reality, a family doctor who devotes an entire day to teleconsultation would not qualify for a day worked according to the RAMQ criteria,” writes the FMOQ.
The Dre Joëlle Bertrand-Bovet, medical director of the Médi-Soleil center in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, considers the offer made by Quebec “extreme”. Currently, doctors receive the same rate for a follow-up visit in person or via teleconsultation. This amount ranges between $20 and $50, she estimates.
“If I have to pay my clinic $40 an hour [pour les frais de bureaux] and I am paid $72 per hour [en arrondissant à 6 $ par 5 minutes]it doesn’t work,” she said.
The family doctor carries out 15 to 20% of her consultations by telephone, mainly for monitoring abnormal results (e.g. uncontrolled diabetes) or mental health follow-ups. She deplores that patients will no longer have access to this service if no agreement is reached.
A “psychodrama” as for the GAP agreement
The Dr Sylvain Dufresne, president of the Association of General Practitioners of the South-West, anticipates a “psychodrama” as was the case during the renewal of the agreement for the first line access window (GAP).
Quebec reached an agreement with the FMOQ almost two weeks after the deadline of 1is June. The number of medical appointments offered at GAP had dropped sharply.
“At the end of December, beginning of January, we will start again the same psychodrama that we had with the GAP,” he believes. It’s Groundhog Day. »
The Dr Dufresne does half a day of consultation per week. He says he sees, for example, patients with depression for follow-up after two or three in-person appointments. It also offers, when possible, telephone consultations to elderly people in winter to avoid “exposing them to sick people”.
Reactions
Questioned about this offer, the office of the President of the Treasury Board referred The Press towards a statement made by Sonia LeBel on the X network. “We fully recognize that telehealth is a solution that improves the efficiency of the system and the access of Quebecers to health care,” she wrote on Friday . “Our proposal, made at the negotiating table, is based on best practices that exist elsewhere. » Discussions will have to continue, she adds, at the negotiating table.
At the time these lines were written, the FMOQ had not yet reacted to the information obtained by The Press.
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