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Western Quebec’s health authority says it is concerned that 15,000 people there are in the process of losing their family doctor. However, fewer doctors are leaving and fewer patients are affected than previously thought.<\/p>\n
As of mid-December, when the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec backed down and overhauled its controversial Bill 2, the group representing western Quebec’s family doctors said 41 of them were leaving<\/a>.<\/p>\n Health authority CISSSO told Radio-Canada Monday that 24 family doctors and nine specialists have finalized their departures since Bill 2 was passed at the end of October.<\/p>\n That number of specialist departures is considered normal, CISSSO said, but it estimated about 20 of the 24 departing family doctors are leaving because of Bill 2.<\/p>\n That number of patients expected to lose a family doctor is down from nearly 37,000 in early December<\/a> to about 15,000, or nearly one in every 25 people. At the time Bill 2 was passed, about 55,300 people there already didn’t have access to a family doctor or family health group.<\/p>\n “The whole system is affected. These doctors were working all over,” said Dr. Marcel Guilbault in French about the doctor departures. He’s medical director of the D\u00e9partement territorial de m\u00e9decine familiale, that area’s family doctor group.<\/p>\n “It’s really a puzzle to replace these people.”<\/p>\n The office of Health Minister Sonia B\u00e9langer declined to comment on the Outaouais numbers when asked by Radio-Canada and referred questions to Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec, which did not answer questions by deadline.<\/p>\n Long-running disagreement<\/p>\n The original version of Bill 2<\/a> would have come into effect Jan. 1 this year, tying doctors’ pay to performance targets to entice them to take on more patients during a family doctor shortage. <\/p>\n It followed Bill 106 last May<\/a>, which followed stalled negotiations with doctors and specialists going back to 2023.<\/p>\n Bill 2 also introduced heavy fines for doctors withholding some kinds of training in protest of Bill 106.<\/p>\n Doctors resisting the changes said it would incentivize a dangerous focus on quantity of care rather than quality. <\/p>\n Hundreds of doctors indicated they were interested in leaving the province, which had a particular effect on western Quebec<\/a> and its close ties to eastern Ontario.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770186192_956_default.jpg\")
Dr. Marcel Guilbault said family health groups will need more funding if they are going to take more patients in need of a family doctor. (Salah Tebessi\/Radio-Canada)<\/p>\n