Barrette silent on promise to find doctors for nearly 74,000 patients

A month after pledging that nearly 74,000 patients would be signed up with family doctors by Easter, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette is staying mum on whether he has accomplished that goal.

Barrette made the promise after Radio-Canada reported last month that 73,844 patients were unable to gain access to family doctors despite making the requests online using a much-publicized registry managed by the health ministry. The guichet d’accès à un médecin de famille (GAMF) is supposed to connect patients with family doctors.

Since April 2016 — when the GAMF database was established — more than 540,000 patients have been registered with general practitioners, according to the provincial government. However, nearly 74,000 patients were still without a GP.

On Thursday, the Montreal Gazette asked Barrette’s press attaché whether the refused patients now have a family doctor — three days before Easter. Radio-Canada’s report aired on Feb. 18.

Catherine W. Audet, Barrette’s aide, did not indicate whether any of the nearly 74,000 patients now have a doctor. Instead, she alluded to the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec (FMOQ), the group that represents GPs.

“This is (information) that was given to us at some point by the FMOQ,” Audet replied by email. “Remember that we encourage doctors to use the GAMF bank to register new patients.”

Patients without a family doctor must enter the number of a valid medicare card in the database. A reporter entered his information in the database on Friday, reporting no health problems.

The database responded instantly, warning of a wait time of nearly one year.

“Currently, in your region, the estimated wait time for persons whose health condition is similar to yours is 312 days from the initial registration date,” the GAMF statement said. “As soon as a doctor has been assigned to you, he or she will contact you.”

Paul G. Brunet, executive director of the patient-rights group, Conseil pour la protection des malades, said it’s unacceptable that so many Quebecers who pinned their hopes on securing a family doctor through the database are still without a GP.

“I don’t believe or trust Barrette or his government anymore on the promises they make,” Brunet said.

Brunet expressed concern that some patients might be turned away because they’re too sick or too old.

“The number of patients heading to hospital emergency rooms is not diminishing,” he added.

Diane Lamarre, health critic for the Parti Québécois, suggested that some family doctors are reluctant to take on patients with chronic medical conditions that require more visits to the hospital.

Lamarre explained that a new regulation imposed on family doctors by Barrette requires that the return rate by patients to their clinics must be at least 80 per cent. But some sicker patients end up going to the hospital more often than a clinic, and as a result, a GP’s attendance rate — or “taux d’assiduité” in French — could drop below 80 per cent.

“We’ve heard of a lot of cases from people saying that doctors will take them because they’re in good health,” Lamarre told the Gazette.

In 37 per cent of cases, doctors declined to register patients because they said they were “unreachable,” according to the government. The second-most cited reason is that the patient’s condition was “incompatible” with the doctor’s practice.

I don’t believe or trust Barrette or his government anymore on the promises they make.