Concerns mount as more doctors eye exit from Quebec health-care system

The situation is growing desperate for some Outaouais residents who are losing their family doctors amid an ongoing migration of health-care professionals from that province.

In the past few weeks, hundreds of physicians in Quebec have applied to work in other provinces including Ontario, and many have given notice to their current employer. It’s all happening in the wake of a controversial bill recently passed by Quebec’s provincial legislature.

Karine Guy’s doctor of about six years has told her he’s leaving, she said. Guy’s husband sees the same doctor.

While she has yet to receive formal notice, Guy believes she has about three months to find a new doctor.

“I am really worried, to be honest, because knowing it’s really difficult to find a doctor, to have access to the system without going to the emergency and [having to] wait 48 hours,” she said.

“I hope they will find a solution for us.”

Bill 2 comes into effect Jan. 1

Quebec’s Bill 2, which takes effect Jan. 1, links doctors’ compensation to performance targets related to the number of patients on their rosters.

Many doctors have said it will affect their ability to provide proper care.

As of Wednesday, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario said it has received 285 applications since Oct. 23 — including more than 20 in the past two days — from Quebec doctors looking to practice in Ontario.

The college said it has granted 42 certificates in that same period.

Quebec’s public health agency Santé Quebec said it’s monitoring the departures with the regional health authority, but would not comment further.

Meanwhile, Premier Doug Ford repeated in a press conference Wednesday that Ontario welcomes everyone.

“I’m not targeting Quebec doctors — if they call me, I return their call,” Ford said.

Clinics prepare as doctors give notice

The situation is trying not only for patients but for clinics who are seeing physicians giving their notice.

Physicians in Quebec are required to give at least 90 days’ notice.

Groupe de Médecine Familiale de Gatineau can’t take on the 3,500 patients that are now being left by two doctors that have resigned, the group’s head physician Annie Gervais told Radio-Canada in French.

“We can’t absorb them.”

Gervais said the two doctors are leaving the clinic, one of whom is headed to Ontario.

That means those patients will go back on the waitlist for a family doctor, she added.