In 2023, and for the second year in a row, Montreal will be taking on fewer new family doctors than expected, yet the metropolis would lack many doctors to adequately treat all of its residents, a situation that the DD Ariane Murray.
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Montreal is short of about 350 full-time doctors, according to the chief of Montreal’s regional department of general medicine, Dr. Arianne Murray invited to Patrick Dery’s microphone on Tuesday.
How it works ?
Calculations are made every year to calculate how many doctors are stationed in each area of each region. These estimates, based on RAMQ data, go back 18 months, resulting in a discrepancy with actual needs.
Then calculations are made according to the specific needs of each area. That year, 1,200 additional doctors would have been needed in the province.
The more remote regions would be more affected by this shortage of GPs due to the relocation and repatriation of doctors to the centres.
The reporting rate to the family doctor, i.e. the proportion of the population who can theoretically see a family doctor, is also an issue. In Montreal, this rate is lowest compared to the rest of Quebec and continues to fall. There would be sectors in the metropolis where less than 60% of the population would have access to this service.
Overwhelmed Doctors
Many people keep their family doctor in the city, even if they no longer live there. “There is a bond, we bond with our patients and we know them,” says Dr. murray
Commuters, alumni, families living in the suburbs, no fewer than 390,000 patients followed in the metropolis outside of Montreal.
According to the professional, if all patients served by GPs in Montreal were Montreal residents, we would have an 88.5% registration rate with a GP.
According to the expert, even if the number of doctors on the south coast or in the urban area were to increase, not much would change since patients are usually attached to their doctor.
“The morale of the doctors is really bleak,” she says, explaining that it’s difficult to turn down patients who need care because of lack of space.
In the short term, “there’s no magic fix,” she explains, but depending on the issue, reaching out to other healthcare professionals could help reduce the wait. “The first-line access counters (GAP) really have the potential to change the situation for our patients who don’t have a GP,” she says.
“I have a red eye, I go to the eye doctor, you have a toothache, you go to the dentist, then you are not sure of your pressure, you go to the nurse. It’s like a relevance filter to go to the doctor exactly when it’s really necessary,” she explains, adding that it would also be necessary to find ways for easy repatriation for those few hundred doctors who go to other countries Canada’s departed or private.
Collective Solutions
Almost 300,000 Quebecers are registered with medical groups and not just one. Even if they don’t always see the same doctor, at least they have access to a local clinic. This temporary solution may be appropriate for some people who take the time to assign a permanent family doctor. “Not all patients need a general practitioner,” says the specialist.
The GAP project and the collective registration therefore allow a formalization of the collective work, thus relieving the overburdened GPs across the country.