Physician Remuneration Act | Pediatricians from several hospitals demonstrate
Demonstrations took place on Sunday at the four pediatric university hospital centers in the province, in opposition to Bill 2, which aims, among other things, to link the remuneration of doctors to performance indicators.
The demonstrators believe that the law jeopardizes access to care for children, in addition to harming research.
In front of Sainte Justine hospital in Montreal, pediatricians, specialist doctors and children wore blue squares on their coats and flew balloons of the same color, a symbol of support for the doctors’ struggle. Demonstrations also took place in front of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, the Soleil mother-child center in Quebec and the Fleurimont hospital in Sherbrooke.
The president of the Council of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists, Michel Lallier, gave a demanding speech in the hospital hall. “We work a lot with cancers, and what do we do when there is cancer? We take it away. When a law is not good and it is a cancer for the health system, we remove it,” he declared to the applause of the crowd.
The Dr Lallier affirmed that doctors would not give up and would continue to fight even if the law is adopted. He said that with “at a minimum, 12, 14, 15, 16 years of university,” doctors are more than capable of understanding the consequences that Bill 2 would bring.
Among these consequences: a drop in medical appointments for children. “The vulnerability criteria of Law 2 are completely inappropriate” for children and pregnant women, maintains pediatrician Marie-Joëlle Doré Bergeron.
The law provides that children born healthy are automatically classified “green”, which, according to the law, places them at the bottom of the priority scale of doctors. However, the Dre Doré Bergeron states that children are “by definition a vulnerable population”, due to the developmental and growth delays they may incur.
Added to this are also mental health problems among adolescents “such as anxiety, suicidal thoughts and eating disorders”, underlines the doctor.
Family doctors who do not respect the order of priority established by the government risk monetary sanctions, says the Dre Doré Bergeron.
Beyond care, Law 2 also threatens health research, according to pediatric immunologist and clinician researcher Hélène Decaluwe.
“When I lead my research team, when I go to national committees, when I present at conferences, I am not performing well. [aux yeux de la loi] “, she says.
During the demonstration, the Dre Decaluwe recounted the case of a child with a case of a rare disease who could be treated thanks to the results of research carried out by Sainte-Justine hospital.
The researcher fears that similar cases cannot take place if medical efficiency focuses on the number of procedures carried out by doctors, reducing the importance of research.
The Ministry of Health and Social Services did not respond to interview requests from The Canadian Press.
