After specialist doctors and medical students, now pharmacist owners are also announcing their intention to challenge provisions of law 2 in court.
According to the Quebec Association of Pharmacy Owners (AQPP), this law includes articles that “permanently disrupt the negotiation dynamics of professional associations in the health sector.”
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Pharmacists are particularly opposed to section 208 of the law, which allows the Minister of Health to modify an existing agreement if he judges that access to care can be improved.
The AQPP finds this provision “unacceptable”, as well as others which “directly affect freedom of association and the right to negotiate”, according to it.
“This is an arbitrary power that is unacceptable in a society governed by the rule of law such as Quebec,” said AQPP President Benoit Morin. “And this power is all the more worrying in the current context where we have been negotiating for several months with a government that has remained silent. We submitted several proposals and analyses to support them and had no feedback or signal from him.
“However, as soon as “Bill 2″ was adopted, knowing that the Minister could impose amendments to the agreement at the end of 60 days, the government sent us a proposal that constitutes not only a major step backwards in terms of norms, but above all, a serious threat to the sustainability of the community pharmacy and its business model.” added Morin.
The association will therefore file a legal appeal “imminently” aimed at challenging in court the articles of the law that it considers problematic.
In recent years, the government has asked community pharmacists to do more to relieve a completely paralyzed health care system. Since then, several laws have been passed allowing pharmacists to perform clinical acts, formerly only consented to doctors.
Quebec’s has about 1,900 pharmacies throughout the province.
Since its passage under closure in the National Assembly at the end of October, Bill 2 has stirred up strong feelings within the healthcare system. This law changes how doctors are paid, imposes performance targets on them, and threatens them with sanctions.
The Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists (FMSQ) and the Quebec Federation of Medical Students have both asked the courts to suspend provisions of the law pending formal debate on the substance.
The medical students’ request was rejected by the Superior Court. For its part, the FMSQ ultimately chose to ask the court to endorse the interpretation of certain articles made by the Attorney General of Quebec, which Judge Pierre Nollet refused to do.
The FMSQ states that it “remains determined” to challenge the substance of Bill 2.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
