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Quebec family doctors’ group vows to make health
minister see light on planned reform
Written by Mark Cardwell on May 11, 2015
An organized group of Quebec family doctors is vowing to continue putting public pressure on provincial health
minister Gaétan Barrette in an effort to stop the passage of a controversial health care bill that would impose
patient quotas on physicians as a way to increase access to health care.
And the group, which is known by its French acronym ROME, wants to meet with the minister to share the 37
alternative proposals to Bill 20 that emerged from a conference that attracted some 280 health care
professionals to downtown Montreal over the weekend.
“We are absolutely opposed to Bill 20,” one of ROME’s founders and directors, Dr. Jean-Philippe Blondeau, told
The Medical Post on Monday.
We are asking the government to rescind Bill 20 and put in place a series of solutions that would respond to the
same accessibility goals
“Imposing quotas could actually be counterproductive because it may make many physicians leave the public
system, or even the province.”
Voted on electronically after two days of group meetings, discussion groups, and presentations by such
marquee invitees as former Montreal Health Authority president David Levine, and a former president of the
B.C. Medical Association, Dr. Shelley Ross, the 37 proposals contained a dozen major ones such as policies to
keep seniors living at home for as long as possible, the abolishing of a requirement for doctors to perform
specific medical activities outside their clinics, and a call on the government to implement EMR.
“We couldn’t find a single person who took Barrette’s side on Bill 20,” Dr. Blondeau said about the forum.
It was the first interdisciplinary meeting held by ROME since it was created late last year following the tabling of
Bill 20 in Quebec’s National Assembly.
The bill spawned a protest Facebook page that now has more than 3,500 physician members.
According to Dr. Blondeau, ROME is a legal entity that has organized and financed several regional conferences
among family doctors with the $250 fee collected from 600 paying doctor-members.
The group issued a statement after the conference, saying it is “asking the government to not impose a reform
that the majority of health-care professions are against.
“We are asking the government to rescind Bill 20 and put in place a series of solutions that would respond to
the same accessibility goals.”
Dr. Blondeau said he is hoping the health minister will meet with ROME at a future conference.
He expressed fears however that the minister is preparing to force through the law in a preemptive vote before
the end of the current session in June.
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“What we’re hearing is that Barrette would give doctors up to two years to learn to adjust to the new
provisions,” said Dr. Blondeau.
“But if Bill 20 becomes law, it would become very difficult for us to challenge it before the courts, which is a
very real possibility.”
A spokesperson for Barrette, Joanne Beauvais, said that many of the ROME proposals are “already possible (or)
are being discussed in current negotiations with (Quebec’s federation of general practitioners, or FMOQ).”
She echoed recent comments by Barrette that many doctors are against abolishing a current requirement that
Quebec family doctors to work 12 hours a week in hospitals (a requirement known as AMP), and that nothing in
Bill 20 prevents doctors with working more closely with other healthcare professionals, as ROME contends.
“The problem is starting with the doctors,” Barrette told the CBC on Sunday. “This bill will stimulate them.”
According to Beauvais, the minister would be happy to meet with ROME, “but negotiations are only going to be
conducted with the FMOQ.
For his part, the president of FMOQ, which represents Quebec’s 8,000 family doctors and is solely responsible
for negotiating salary and working conditions with the government, lauded the efforts of ROME.
But Dr. Louis Godin said that most if not all of the major proposals from the weekend meeting have already
been considered and are being suggested in negotiations with government.
The problem is starting with the doctors. This bill will stimulate them
“I have no problem with family doctors meeting to discuss solutions and making suggestions for what are very
complex issues,” Dr. Godin told The Medical Post today.
“But we are right now in very serious discussions with the minister and the government over Bill 20,” he said.
“We are trying to get our points of view across (and) make known our many concerns about this proposed
legislation. We are working on the file, which is far from closed. It’s like baseball, it’s not over until it’s over.”
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