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QUEBEC — Health Minister Christian Dubé is calling on doctors to show good faith to find a solution to an impasse endangering the one-stop shopping system that has allowed Quebecers without family doctors to book appointments with medical personnel.
Three days after accusing doctors of “taking patients hostage” for stopping taking appointments, Dubé took a softer tone when he met the media Tuesday, saying he is ready to extend the existing agreement and preserve the Primary Care Access Point (GAP) as long as there are some adjustments.
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“I am committing myself to not be intransigent in the coming days and I am asking the same thing of the union leaders of the FMOQ (Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec),” Dubé said arriving for question period at the legislature.
“I am open to quite a few things as long as I reach my objectives.”
He also had a message for Quebecers worried the service — which compensates doctors for seeing walk-in patients — will be dropped entirely as a result of the dispute.
“I want people to understand the GAP is here to say,” he said.
Dubé sparked the anger of doctors in April in announcing the end of that compensation, $120 for each patient seen via the GAP system.
The FMOQ responded saying the loss of these payments was putting the system at risk.
Statistics distributed to the media after showed a dramatic drop in the number of available appointments on the GAP system. Some patients without doctors also received letters from the family medicine groups where they are registered saying that the GAP service would no longer be available.
If that happened, thousands of Quebecers without family doctors would be again forced to seek aid in overburdened emergency rooms.
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A conciliator was named over the weekend in the hopes of reaching an agreement before the existing agreement on the GAP is set to be expire on Friday.
The $120 bonuses paid represent a total bill to the Treasury of $100 million a year because they have helped 940,000 patients without family doctors.
Dubé said he did not want to negotiate in public but there are things in the system that need to be improved. He would not say, for example, whether the $120 amount would remain.
Quebec has fears the incentive system has encouraged doctors to accept the so-called orphaned patients to the detriment of their own patients or other walk-ins.
“I have said I did not agree with this agreement in its current form,” Dubé said. “What I want to ensure is that it is the patients in a real need who get the appointments.”
Dubé said the original agreement was a transitionary tool while the government negotiated a new contract with doctors.
Dubé said he is optimistic a deal can be reached in time.
“Today is Tuesday,” he said. “The agreement ends Friday and I have often seen in my career negotiations that wind up at the last minute because the parties found solutions.
“Nobody wants the GAP to end. It’s a beautiful success. We just have to ensure it responds to a real need. When I am asked if I am willing to extend it, the answer is yes.
“The thing I have also said is I want some adjustments. I’m willing to extend it, but on the principle of some adjustments.”
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