2023-08-27 05:18:45
Worried regarding the health reform, members of the Fédération des Médecins Spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ) have sent letters to their establishments to inform them of the crying needs for manpower and resources which, according to them, prevent them from to do their job well. And this, at a time when the FMSQ is engaging in a standoff with the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, concerning its reform.
This series of letters is part of a campaign called “Objective Healing”, launched last January by the FMSQ. The final report was sent to Federation members on Friday. The Press got a copy.
“I’ve been in the hospital for 30 years, and I’ve never seen the network in this state,” said Dr.r Norman Laurin, nuclear medicine specialist, who participated in the exercise. “Everything we try to do is like The twelve labors of Asterix, he adds. It’s the house that drives you crazy. »
“The concern of medical specialists conveyed by your 319 letters is worrying and highlights the dilapidation of the Quebec health system”, also writes, at the opening of the report, the Dr Vincent Oliva, president of the FMSQ.
This situation is unacceptable. It compromises access to care for the patient, in addition to placing physicians in an often untenable situation with respect to their professional and ethical obligations.
The Dr Vincent Oliva, President of the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec, opening the report
This campaign was born following the tabling in March 2022 of the health reform plan. This plan “caused many medical specialists to react,” the report reads.
Doctors particularly criticize the Dubé reform for keeping them away from places of decision-making power. The latter also tightens the screw on specialists who will be subject, like general practitioners, to “specific medical activities” such as taking on more patients and covering unfavorable on-call shifts.
A lack of tools and personnel
In their letters, the physicians raised issues directly with their establishment directors that prevent them from practicing, beyond their own availability.
In Trois-Rivières, for example, where the Dr Laurin practices, the shortage of technologists to operate nuclear medicine equipment is “serious”, he underlines.
We were down to 7 technologists out of 16, almost out of service. We hit rock bottom a few months ago.
The Dr Norman Laurin, specialist in nuclear medicine
However, the hospital bought two years ago a camera which “would make it possible to make 30% to 50% more patients per technologist”, affirms the medical specialist. Two years later, the new camera has still not been delivered and installed. “There are still, to my knowledge, no plans to install it. And it revolves around human resources problems in the direction of technical services, ”he says, discouraged.
The response to the letter he co-signed as part of the campaign was “laconic” and “incredibly flat,” he said. According to the report of the campaign, the answers of the establishments, when they arrived, alluded in majority to the shortage of manpower and resources to explain the difficulties raised by the doctors.
Medical specialists in Quebec depend on human resources (nurses, technologists, etc.) and material resources (operating rooms, equipment, etc.) to do their job well, also details the FMSQ.
“Our members are highly mobilized to provide the best care possible to their patients,” said Dr.r Oliva in a written statement to The Press. However, the lack of resources greatly limits them […]. This is why the Federation has supported them in their approach to improving the network and proposing many constructive solutions to meet the needs of patients. »
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