Bill 83 includes fines up to $100,000 a day for non-compliance to the law and up to $200,000 for repeat offenders.
QUEBEC — Health Minister Christian Dubé wants to oblige newly graduated doctors and medical specialists to practise in the public sector in the first years of their professional careers.
On Tuesday, Dubé tabled legislation, Bill 83, in the National Assembly that will require students who studied medicine in a Quebec university to devote the first years of their professional lives as general practitioners or specialists working in public institutions.
The minimum period in the public system will be five years, the bill, An Act to foster the practice of medicine in the public health and social services network, states.
The bill includes stiff fines for non-compliance to the law. A doctor refusing to follow the law would face fines of between $20,000 and $100,000 a day and per act. A repeat offender would face fines ranging from $40,000 to $200,000.
The bill is unlikely to be adopted before Christmas. The sitting of the legislature ends Friday for the Christmas break.
Among the 22,479 doctors currently licensed in Quebec, 774 are now working exclusively in the private health network, a number that represents a 70-per-cent increase since 2020, data supplied by the health ministry indicates.
At the same time, wait times in emergency wards and for surgery are growing.
The ministry has indicated the cost to Quebec taxpayers of training a doctor, including residency, now is between $435,000 and $790,000. At the same time, the number of spots to study medicine in Quebec’s education system is limited.
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