Graduation delayed for Quebec medical students amid stalled contact negotiations

All four medical schools in Quebec have confirmed that graduation will be delayed for the current school year.

They say the delay is due to the pressure tactics by Quebec’s GPs and specialists who are refusing to teach medical students. More than half of those slated to finish this summer will face delays.

This afternoon the deans of Quebec’s four medical faculties formally announced “with regret” that more than half of the medical students — approximately 500 of them slated to graduate this coming spring — will not graduate on time.

The medical schools say for the past five weeks, they have been struggling to maintain some medical training, particularly for first- and second-year pre-clinical students. But since Sept. 15, the near-total suspension of clinical rotations have severely limited their ability to adequately train the next generation of doctors on bedside learning.

Last week, the province’s GPs stopped their clinical teaching of medical students as a pressure tactic in their dispute with the government over Bill 106, the proposed legislation that would, in part, tie their salaries to work performance. The province’s specialists began the same pressure tactic this fall to try to get the government to drop that aspect of the bill.

The government has lowered the percentage tied to performance but refused to remove it altogether and mediation with the GPs failed. Despite supporting the doctors, the med students have been caught in the crossfire and on Monday they found that a good portion of them will be affected by this dispute.

“Students are very worried, very discouraged that nothing has evolved in the last five weeks. There’s been three weeks of mediation and we feel like we’re back to square one. So a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress and a lot of uncertainty as well, which is very hard to deal with as medical students in a program that’s already very difficult,” Nicolas Dostie, president of the Université de Montréal medical students’ association, told CTV News.

“The worst in all of this is that if a graduation of one cohort is delayed, that means this cohort would potentially join the next cohort,” said Ryan Kara, executive president of the McGill University medical students’ society.

“That means for one year, zero doctors in the hospital, but the following year, potentially twice the amount of doctors. That means a lot more time spent by the doctors to teach students. That means less time given to patients per the doctors for their one year, where there is missing one fifth of doctors. It is really just stressful because essentially there’s a lot of unknowns.”

Ministers call on doctors to resume talks; doctors call for Legault to step in

Earlier on Monday, the Quebec government called on the province’s doctors to resume contract negotiations after the talks stalled.

In a joint statement on social media posted Monday morning, Treasury Board President France-Élaine Duranceau and Health Minister Christian Dubé shared the invitation to resume negotiations.

“The government is once again inviting the federations to sit at the table. The objective remains to ensure better access to care for Quebec women and Quebec men, particularly through an affiliation with a care setting,” reads the statement.

The Quebec Federation of General Practitioners (FMOQ) and the Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists (FMSQ) had been criticizing what they see as a lack of flexibility by the province on contract issues.

The FMSQ is calling on Premier François Legault to intervene to break the deadlock, saying “the system is on its last legs.”

“Specialist physicians want to treat patients, and Minister Dubé is throwing a wrench in the works with his Bill 106,” the federation said on social media on Monday.

Over the weekend, FMSQ president Dr. Vincent Oliva called on Legault to step in. Speaking on behalf of Quebec’s 11,000 specialists, Oliva said doctors are currently seething with anger and have lost confidence in Dubé.

“Three rounds of negotiations have been held since last summer. Recently, a mediator was added to the discussions. Each of these attempts has failed due to your minister’s stubbornness and his desire to punish doctors for the problems in the health-care system. This attitude prevents potential agreements with your spokespersons at the negotiating table, who we believe are acting in good faith. As for Minister Dubé, he has lost our trust,” reads the letter sent to Legault on Saturday, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press.

Legault responded to Oliva on Sunday, arguing that the performance-based remuneration model is a transformation “essential to ensuring access throughout the province.”

With files from The Canadian Press