Article content QUEBEC — Health Minister Christian Dubé is calling on doctors to show good faith to find a solution to an impasse endangering the one-stop shopping system that has allowed Quebecers without family doctors to book appointments with medical personnel. Three days after accusing doctors of “taking patients hostage” for stopping taking appointments, Dubé took a softer tone when he met the media Tuesday, saying he is ready to extend the existing agreement and preserve the Primary Care Access Point (GAP) as long as there are some adjustments. “I am committing myself to not be intransigent in the coming days and I am asking the same thing of the union leaders of the FMOQ (Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec),” Dubé said arriving for question period at the legislature.
“I am open to quite a few things as long as I reach my objectives.” He also had a message for Quebecers worried the service — which compensates doctors for seeing walk-in patients — will be dropped entirely as a result of the dispute. “I want people to understand the GAP is here to say,” he said.
Dubé sparked the anger of doctors in April in announcing the end of that compensation, $120 for each patient seen via the GAP system. The FMOQ responded saying the loss of these payments was putting the system at risk. Statistics distributed to the media after showed a dramatic drop in the number of available appointments on the GAP system.
Some patients without.
