The Association des optométristes du Québec plans to challenge the government’s ministerial order.
A day before the majority of Quebec optometrists were to withdraw from the province’s public health plan, the government announced it intends to force them to stay.
Quebecers who benefit from RAMQ-covered optometry services — children, those above the age of 65 and low-income people — should not be affected by contract negotiations between the government and optometrists, Health Minister Christian Dubé said in a post on X on Wednesday.
“(A) ministerial decree will protect vulnerable clients from union pressure tactics,” Dubé said. “Negotiations must take place at the tables. The priority is to offer quality services to the population.”
Stalled contract negotiations led nearly 90 per cent of the Association des optométristes du Québec’s 1,500-person membership to announce last month their intention to leave the plan as of Thursday.
At the time, Dubé described the decision as a pressure tactic, stressing there was still time to come to an agreement. The AOQ decried the fact that contract negotiations that first began in 2020 had arrived at an impasse. The contract involves the fees and conditions of their participation in RAMQ.
“Our operating costs have risen three times faster than the government’s fees for services, such that our compensation per RAMQ patient visit is now only $3.50,” AOQ president Guillaume Fortin said in a statement Wednesday, echoing a similar statement from last month. “The affected groups make up 55 per cent of optometrists’ patients, and that proportion is growing.”
The AOQ said it plans to challenge the government’s ministerial order, noting they are entitled to leave the public plan if they so choose.
“Since every professional has the legal right not to participate in the public plan, we greatly deplore the government’s attitude,” Fortin said. “Negotiations have been at a standstill for nearly five years. We are dismayed by this authoritarian approach, as we have been waiting for a reasonable offer for years now.”
The association admitted the move was in protest of the “stalemate in negotiations” on fees between itself and the health ministry.
“We are asking for reasonable and fair treatment so that we can continue to play our role throughout Québec and help to relieve congestion in the system, not least by treating some 180,000 eye emergencies every year,” Fortin said.