Premier Philippe Couillard maintains the agreement in principal signed on Friday between the Quebec government and medical specialists will aid patients.
Medical specialists will also benefit by avoiding the penalties provided for in Bill 130, which would regulate the practice of specialists in hospitals.
The premier denied he had yielded to the powerful doctors lobby, who have received substantial and controversial pay increases in recent years.
On the contrary, he said during a media scrum on Saturday, government negotiators obtained significant, never before seen, gains in order to guarantee access to medical specialists.
As well, the government’s financial framework was scrupulously respected, the premier said, after visiting the Ice Palace of Bonhomme Carnaval, near the National Assembly, and meeting people participating in activities at the Quebec City Carnaval.
The confidential agreement aims to set working conditions and renumeration for the 10,000 members of the Fédération des médecins spécialistes (FMSQ). Few details have come out about the content of the agreement, which will have to be approved by the members of the federation before it comes into force.
“We have obtained (from the medical specialists) things that we have never had before now,” Couillard said, without going into the details of the agreement.
For the government, increasing access to specialists was central.
“There are very important gains for patients in terms of access to services, particularly in (medical) imaging” that were obtained, Couillard said.
The lack of consistency in services offered, an issue in several regions, will also be reduced by the agreement, according to the premier.
On the question of additional payments to medical specialists, Couillard would only say the agreement “fully respects the government’s financial framework.”
On average, medical specialists earn $420,000 in Quebec, while family doctors receive $245,000.
In October, general practitioners received an increase of 14.7 per cent over six years worth a total of $1.6 billion.
In the eyes of medical specialists, the negotiations were primarily intended to avoid the effects of Bills 20 and 130, which would change the way they practice and reduce their professional autonomy, a scenario they consider unacceptable.
On Friday, the president of the FMSQ, Diane Francoeur, claimed victory, saying the federation has won the right to negotiate its members working conditions, something it has been fighting for.
Health Minister Gaétan Barrette had threatened t0 apply Bill 20, which provides for significant financial penalties, up to 30 per cent of remuneration, if doctors don’t increase the number of patients in their care. Even though the targets established in the bill have not been reached, the penalties in the law are currently suspended.
Couillard suggested punitive measures in Bill 130 would also be suspended. That bill gives hospital directors more power to control how specialists use their time, increase their productivity and their presence at the hospital.
Couillard said it was not a concession by the government.
“This is not a retreat,” he said. “It’s the same thing as with the general practitioners. There has been a lot of progress. By the way, many targets are close to being reached. With the general practitioners, we had a dialogue to see if we could increase the time to reach a few targets, but with continued effort. We are ready to have the same discussion with a the specialists, but this will be done in parallel.”
Barette, who was excluded from the negotiations in December, refused a request for an interview.
The Parti Québécois critic on health issues, MNA Diane Lamarre, expressed concern the agreement contained no real guarantee that access to medial specialists will be improved.
“I am very concerned that, once again, we have not demanded the guarantees necessary for the public to receive essential services,” she said. According to her, the priority should given to cancer-related surgeries and that this should appear in the agreement.
She also criticized the fact the details of the agreement are not being made public and the process remains “completely closed.”
In December, the open conflict between FMSQ president Francoeur and Barrette became a legal dispute, as the organization filed a request in Superior Court to preserve its right to negotiate the conditions under which medicine is practiced.
Several hours before the deadline, Couillard became personally involved, seeking to calm the situation and avoid litigation, by assuring the FMSQ that Barrette would be excluded from the negotiations, a request the federation had repeatedly made.