Many medical students in Quebec prefer specialties to family medicine. Hundreds of residence positions have not been filled in 10 years.
According to data obtained by Radio-Canada, 73 positions for family medicine residents were not filled in Quebec faculties of medicine this year, most of the 99 vacancies across Canada. Positions located mainly in the regions.
Last year, a record 75 positions were not filled in Quebec. There have been hundreds in total over a decade.
With an average of 1,000 patients per family doctor, the problem is inevitable when headlines report nearly a million Quebecers without a family doctor.
“I will have my own client”
In a few weeks, Marjorie Gagné will complete her residency in family medicine after two years of clinical training at an FMG in the Lanaudière region.
Eventually, as the boss, I’ll have my own clients, and it’s really the possibility to have people we follow, that we know at heart, that I’m interested in.explanation of this student from Rivière-du-Loup.
Family medicine, however, was not his first choice at the beginning of his medical studies. An aborted research project in a specialty prompted him to reorient his career toward family medicine.
There’s a bit of a medical culture that seems to tend towards the fact that it’s less potion go to family medicine than go to a specialtyobservation today by Marjorie Gagné.
” We often hear phrases like: “I’m just going to be a family doctor”, which is a bit embarrassing for our profession. “
The doctor and deputy medical director of GMF-U du Nord de Lanaudière, Dr. Mathieu Pelletier, this culture, who observed it in his study in the 2000s.
Now a full -time professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Laval University, he regrets that the profession is suffering from a lack of popularity.
Last year, 3 out of 12 resident areas were not filled with GMFhe cited as an example.
” It’s a trend we’re seeing all over Quebec, and it will have effects for years to come if we don’t respond now. “
Efforts to develop internship environments
The spokesman for the four faculties of medicine in Quebec, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal, Dr. Patrick Cossette, recalled the number of admissions to family medicine residency has nearly doubled in 15 years.
By e-mail, he specified that the areas that remain vacant are largely outside major urban centers […] and that many of the factors that make a profession attractive do not depend on medical schools.
We have opened several delocalized campuses for nearly 20 years to attract and train undergraduate students in the regions. […] and we continue our efforts to develop new internship environments [GMF-U] in all regions of Quebec to welcome more and more family medicine residents in the coming yearscontinued Dr. Cossette.
According to the president of the Federation of Resident Physicians of Quebec, Dr. Jessica Ruel-Laliberté, it remains a concern, to the Federation, to ensure that there is an interest and that we can promote family medicine in Quebec.
Given the political context in recent months, I will tell you that, for us, the big message is that we see a direct link between the comments made by the government, which ”bashing the doctor“then the fact that students eventually see family medicine as less attractive than other specialtieshe added.
Source: Radio-Canada
