Quebec doctors say new bill will drive them away, threaten patient access [Video]

Doctors at a medical clinic in Kingsey Falls, a town in central Quebec, say they are contemplating closing their clinic and pivoting out of family practice — or Quebec altogether — if a bill allowing the province to regulate how physicians are paid is adopted as it is written.

Bill 106, tabled earlier this month, would link up to 25 per cent of physicians’ pay to their performance in an effort to get them to take on more patients.

But in a statement posted to their social media, doctors at the Kingsey Falls medical clinic said the new rules would impose unattainable performance targets on them and reduce their ability to deliver quality care to patients. 

“We can’t take on more patients if we don’t have more resources or a system that’s more efficient and productive to be able to take good care of them,” said Dr. Isabelle Lemieux, who …