Press release

Individual Hearings on Bill 34: The FMSQ Strongly Criticizes the Minister’s Approach

Montreal, May 27, 2009 – Individual hearings before the Commission des affaires sociales were held yesterday evening on Bill 34 at the National Assembly. Dr. Gaétan Barrette, President of the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ), took the occasion to strongly criticize the policies put forward by the Minister of Health and Social Services, and called upon MNA’s to reject or substantially amend the Bill.

The government’s initial objective was to improve access to care by establishing a link between treatment carried out in specialized medical centres (SMC) and those for which guaranteed access should apply in the public plan, particularly with regard to hip, knee or cataract surgeries. Bill 34, however, is designed to introduce a stream of new requirements with which physicians will have to comply if they want to practise in a specialized medical centre. Not only will there be no improvement in access to medical care, but the measures put forward by the Minister of Health’s Bill 34 will, in fact, be detrimental to this goal.

“The FMSQ is dumbfounded by the huge number of measures that are designed to be imposed on specialized medical centres, both by this Bill and by the constant restraints adopted by the Minister of Health via regulations and documents published on his department’s Internet site. In addition to the negative impact on the organization of and access to care, these new requirements will detract from the fundamental rights of physicians and patients,” declared the FMSQ President.

“Faced with the cumbersome organizational and bureaucratic requirements they will have to fulfill, many physicians will have the choice of complying as of September 30, 2009 or of declining to include in their office practice the activities which must be carried out in a specialized medical centre. Many members have clearly indicated to us their intention of selecting the second option, particularly since the Minister will henceforth assume the discretionary and arbitrary power to grant a physician a specialized medical centre permit – or not,” he continued.

During his hearing before the Commission des affaires sociales, the FMSQ President also urged parliamentarians to clear up the confusion and contradictions relating to the concept of opening up to private care. It is important to remember that virtually all doctors’ offices provide patients with care funded by the public system. They are therefore an essential, complementary part of our health network.


A double standard, a single Minister …
While family physician groups (FPG) and the GPs’ clinic network have been introduced in a consensual manner through negotiated agreements, the Minister has chosen to impose a legal straitjacket on specialized medical centres and affiliated offices.

“Health Minister Bolduc has summarily dismissed the LEAN philosophy (Toyota), even though he used to be one of its ardent promoters. This type of approach meets none of the objectives to broaden access to specialized care within an acceptable time frame for patients,” stated the President of the FMSQ.

The Federation has made it known that it is also concerned about the other excessive ambitions of the Minister of Health with regard to Bill 26 – An Act respecting clinical and research activities related to assisted procreation. We have to ask ourselves some serious questions about the government’s recent propensity for desiring discretionary control over care provided in doctors’ offices.
“This Bill was to be the realization of an electoral promise: to assist infertile couples by defraying the cost of treatment in private clinics. Yet the Bill is totally mute in this regard. Instead, the Minister has seized the occasion to give himself additional discretionary powers and, yet again, impose a multitude of requirements on both the procreation and research centres. Bill 26 paves the way to a form of control by regulation. A change in attitude and approach is urgently required,” concluded the FMSQ President.

The FMSQ brief (in French only) can be consulted in the Publications section of its Internet site at: www.fmsq.org.

The mission of the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec is to defend and promote the economic, professional, scientific and social interests of the medical specialists who are members of its affiliated associations. The Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec numbers more than 8,000 members in Quebec, representing 35 medical specialties. It is the sole organization recognized by government with respect to negotiating medical specialists' collective agreements, and is also consulted on all aspects of the organization of medical care in Quebec.