The FMSQ accuses the CAQ of attempting to create a diversion: "the Minister of Health has lost control"

In the midst of negotiations with the Legault government, the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ) accuses the CAQ of trying to blame doctors to distract from the health system "which it has allowed to deteriorate."

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In a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's Journal , the FMSQ criticized the government's belligerent attitude and deplored the fact that it is not providing doctors with the means to achieve the objectives it wishes to impose on them.

In an interview with LCN, FMSQ President Dr. Vincent Oliva strongly denounced the comments made by Minister Christian Dubé and Premier François Legault, according to which doctors were not working enough.

"It's insult to injury, and I think we need to be aware of how angry doctors currently in the field [...] are because they're being told: 'you're not working hard enough, you're lazy,' and I think we need to walk around the hospitals and see how committed doctors are and how willing they are to provide services to the population," says Dr. Oliva.

The latter refutes the CAQ's accusations that patients present themselves in the operating room or in an outpatient clinic and do not have doctors to take care of them.

"I visited about forty hospitals during my tour. I'm actively practicing at the CHUM. I've never seen anything like this. So this proposal is beyond me. I don't understand their argument, and I think the Minister of Health has lost control, and that this is a diversionary tactic," proclaims the president of the FMSQ.

"We don't understand this discourse, we don't want to argue. What we want is to treat patients. Could we do more? Not only could we, but we would like to do more," he adds.

The federation believes that the government should accelerate the renovation and modernization of hospitals to enable doctors to do their work better.

"We wonder why they are opening a frontal war with doctors when what we need to do is focus on providing services to the population [...] A doctor alone can do nothing. A doctor depends on the platform he is given, the outpatient clinic spaces, the surgical rooms, the equipment and the endoscopy and imaging staff, etc." explains Dr. Vincent Oliva.

To see the full interview, watch the video above.