The Minister of Health of Quebec, Christian Dubé, has decided to remove some of the obstacles related to the method of distribution of positions for family doctors in Quebec. A decision which, he hopes, will attract more family doctors to the region.
When they begin their careers, family physicians are assigned a “Special Medical Activity” (MPA) in addition to their primary work. They will have to devote a few hours a week to emergency, in a CHSLD or elsewhere, depending on local needs.
For young doctors, this was a notable source of dissatisfaction since they sometimes inherited AMPs that did not interest them or in which they felt less competent.
In order to respond to their requests, Minister Dubé will ensure that they can know, in advance, which AMP will be allocated to them if they apply in a given region, learned The duty.
Last March, associations representing the next generation in family medicine indicated that the constraints related to AMPs greatly undermined the attractiveness of their profession.
However, they will have to wait for the next recruitment period, which will begin in the fall of 2023, to see these changes take effect.
In Quebec, family medicine positions are distributed through regional medical staffing plans (PREM), a system that was set up in the early 2000s to ensure that all regions have doctors in sufficient number.
No less than 412 new PREMs were granted in family medicine across Quebec in 2023, including a determined number for each region: 85 for Montreal, 21 in Laval, etc. However, more and more students shun these positions, and family medicine in general. In the past two years, 140 of these positions have not been filled in Quebec. During this time, the number of patients waiting for a family doctor exceeded 800,000 people, or 11% of the Quebec population.
Christian Dubé must also announce that the regional health authorities will have more of a say in the distribution of doctors on their territory. Thus, from the moment the number of positions has been distributed between regions, the regional departments of general medicine will be able to distribute the positions according to the priorities that they have determined.
