Quebec leading the nation in ratio of female physicians

Quebec leads all provinces in its proportion of female physicians — a trend that has been on the rise since at least 2013, according to a new study.

Quebec also has one of the highest rates of physicians per 100,000 population in the country, renewing questions as to why access to doctors is still a problem in the province.

What’s more, the annual study by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reaffirms that Quebec medical specialists earn considerably more than their counterparts in Ontario.

The pay gap between Quebec and Ontario specialists became an issue in the last provincial election campaign, with now-premier François Legault pledging to claw back their pay.

Women comprise nearly half of all doctors in Quebec — that is, 48.5 per cent in 2017 — up from 44.9 per cent in 2013.

By comparison, female doctors in Ontario constituted 39.4 per cent of the medical profession in 2017, and the national rate stood at 41 per cent.

The so-called feminization of the medical profession in Quebec has been lauded by observers for better responding to the needs of women, emphasizing health prevention and allowing for more compassionate care.

The trend has also focused more attention on work-life balance.

The study found that Quebec had 247.7 doctors per 100,000 population in 2017, up from 236.8 four years earlier. Although Quebec’s ratio is higher than Ontario’s and the national rate, access to family doctors remains a persistent problem in the province, especially in the Montreal region.

The study also observed that the average gross clinical payments per family physician in Quebec was $261,000 in 2017, compared with a national rate of $277,000.

But when it comes to medical specialists in Quebec, the opposite is the case. The province’s specialists earned an average of $384,000 in 2017 compared with $341,000 in Ontario and the national average of $357,000.

Those figures would appear to support the claims by the Coalition Avenir Québec government that Quebec specialists earn much more than their colleagues in Ontario, despite that province’s higher cost of living.

The non-partisan CIHI study did note that surgical specialists were paid $453,000 in 2017, lower than Ontario’s average ($480,000) and the national one ($477,000).

However, when Legault denounced the high pay of “millionaire specialists,” he wasn’t alluding to surgeons.

In previous studies on physician remuneration, CIHI did not include the term “surgical specialist” in provincial breakdowns.

Alexandre Lahaie, press attaché to Health Minister Danielle McCann, declined to comment on CIHI’s findings on the pay gap.

He said the provincial Treasury Board launched an in-depth study on this question in November, and the government wants to wait for its conclusions before deciding on a course of action.

Lahaie, however, did reiterate that the CAQ government plans to switch from the main mode of remuneration for physicians — which is based on a fee for each medical procedure — to one that would be financially advantageous for doctors to take on more patients.

“We want to pay them as a function of the number of patients that they follow, but with the assistance of a medical team,” Lahaie added, suggesting that such measures would improve access to physicians.

Although the Quebec College of Physicians has commented in the past on the feminization of the profession, a spokesperson declined on Thursday to make any remarks on that subject or the pay gap between specialists in the two provinces. aderfel@postmedia.com twitter.com/Aaron_Derfel

We want to pay them as a function of the number of patients that they follow …