Over the weekend, it was reported that three department heads with the regional health authority CISSSO had stepped down in response to Bill 2, the controversial healthcare law the CAQ signed into existence on Oct. 24 to overhaul the way doctors are reimbursed across the province.
According to Radio-Canada, Dr. Éric Bégin, the CISSSO’s head of surgery, Dr. Trevor Hennessey, head of anesthesiology, and Dr. Lionel Ange Poungui, head of gynecological/obstetrical services, have all announced their resignations since the bill was signed into law. CISSSO has said the departures would not cause any disruptions to services or surgeries.
The bill’s previous iteration, Bill 106, was met with much criticism over the previous months, with doctors associations saying the performance metrics it introduces would lead to “fast-food medicine”, prioritizing the quantity of patients seen over the quality of care delivered.
In addition, the new version of the bill adds penalties up to $500,000 for those who take “concerted action” against the government’s policies. Doctors’ associations had previously used pressure tactics such as refusing to teach medical students in response to the government’s actions.
Pontiac MNA and former health critic André Fortin said the contentious debates around the issue have created a toxic environment for doctors. He said that in terms of improving efficiency, there was a lot that’s outside of the doctor’s hands.
“They called doctors all sorts of names, they created a toxic relationship between government and doctors, and they’re not giving doctors any more resources to meet these objectives,” he said. “For example, the operating block at the Gatineau Hospital, there’s seven of them and two of them are in operation because they don’t have enough nurses. If government wants to put on doctors the responsibilities of operating on more patients, it has to provide them with more nurses, more operating room time, which it’s not ready to do.”
Fortin said that he had heard that as many as 200 doctors who had expressed their interest in working in either Ontario or New Brunswick, which he said would be bad news for their patients if they do leave.
“As a party we’ve got one message for Quebec doctors and that is, give us a year. Wait for the next elections, don’t go now, there’s a better way forward here,” he said. “The CAQ government only has 10 or 11 months left to its mandate. We’re pleading for doctors to take their time and we will find a way to work on changing the way they get paid, and do it with them rather than against them.”
Jean Pigeon, the head of SOS Outaouais, an organization advocating for improving the health care system in western Quebec, said that the proximity of a major centre like Ottawa leaves the system vulnerable to departures.
“It’s very easy for people to make the decision to just cross a bridge every morning to work in another province,” he said. “So this bill that just passed will have an effect on the provincial scale, but we think the Outaouais region will be deeply [impacted] first because of the proximity we have with Ontario.”
