Health Minister Christian Dubé announced Thursday that he is abandoning the surveillance measures provided for in Bill 2, his third attempt to “reconcile” with doctors.
Nothing has been going right in the healthcare system since Bill 2 was passed under closure on Oct. 25, changing the way doctors are paid, imposing performance targets on them, and threatening them with sanctions.
This law also provides for the establishment of a system to monitor doctors.
On Thursday, Dubé and his colleague at the Treasury, France-Élaine Duranceau, formally committed to “never” applying the monitoring provisions, even though they will remain in the law.
This is the third setback for the government. Last week, the two ministers said they were “reaching out” to doctors by suspending two other provisions.
They announced that they would maintain the bonus paid to specialists for initial consultations. This bonus was to be abolished and the money redistributed.
They are also maintaining the 30 per cent supplement that was paid to family medicine group (GMF) doctors to cover certain administrative costs.
Instead of taking a piecemeal approach, the government should suspend Bill 2 altogether until the situation calms down, said Marc Tanguay, the official opposition spokesperson on health issues.
“It is demonstrating itself that its law is poorly drafted, unenforceable, and repressive,” added Vincent Marissal of Québec solidaire.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
