Province preps project to get patients without family doctor quicker access to care
CBC
Like tens of thousands of Quebecers, Claude Viau is registered on the province's waiting list for a family doctor.
The 67-year-old has been on the list for more than 1,270 days, or three and a half years.
"With my taxes, I contribute to the public health system, and that's fine with me," said Viau. "But to make that contribution for a service I don't have access to because I don't have a family doctor, it's a situation that, for me, is very frustrating."
The Quebec government is hoping to put an end to Viau and others' frustration in the coming months, by implementing a one-stop resource for people without family doctors who need access to primary care, known in French as Le Guichet d'accès aux soins de première ligne (GAP).
According to Radio-Canada's La Facture, Quebecers will be able to call a phone number, which will vary by region, and speak with a health professional who will evaluate their needs before directing them to a physician, nurse or pharmacist at a nearby clinic or pharmacy.
The service is expected to be up and running by March 31, 2022.
It's not the only initiative from the province that aims to make it easier for people without a family doctor to get access to care.
On Nov. 11, the Coalition Avenir Québec government tabled a bill that would make doctors enter their work schedule in a new appointment booking system. The idea is to get a sense of doctors' workloads and see if there is room to take on more patients.
Eventually, the province's goal is to help the estimated 1.5 million Quebecers without a family doctor to be able to find one.
The GAP system is different, however, in that it does not necessarily refer a patient to a physician.
"A patient can think that they need a doctor, but there are also a lot of pharmacists that can fix [many] situations," said Maryse Proulx, one of the first nurses to enroll in the GAP in the Montérégie-West region.
"The doctor isn't always the first resource to fix a problem that a patient has."
The GAP project is rolling out across Quebec, after a pilot project in the Lower Saint-Lawrence region.
About 8,900 calls were received in that region. Half of the callers were referred to a physician, and 10 per cent of the callers ultimately found a family doctor.
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