The healthcare system in Quebec is deteriorating. Statistics show that despite government intervention, the population has less and less access to medical care. A serious situation considering that Quebec's population is aging rapidly.
In October 2022, I wrote in these pages that the number of doctors in Quebec is 2.63 per 1000 inhabitants (2021). The situation has worsened. From now on there will only be 2.55 doctors per 1000 inhabitants (2023). The average for OECD countries is 3.6 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants.
To reach the OECD average, we would need to add around 6,650 doctors immediately. We are a long way from that, as the Minister of Health is only promising 660 more doctors by 2027.
In addition, almost a quarter of Quebec's 22,917 doctors are over 60 years old. And under pressure from immigration, Quebec's population is growing rapidly.
In addition, almost two-thirds of new doctors are women. However, and this is not a criticism, but a fact, female doctors spend more time with their children than male doctors. Compared to the old cohort of doctors, which was predominantly male, this is a huge waste of time treating patients.
Damage to be expected
If the number of doctors does not increase much faster, the health of Quebec's population will deteriorate, resulting in lost revenue for governments that will be much greater than the savings they believe they will achieve from poor investments in health become.
For example, Canada only has 2.6 hospital beds per 1,000 people, while the average for OECD countries is 4.3 beds per 1,000 people.
This deficit partly explains the overload of emergency departments and the endless waiting lists for non-urgent surgeries.
One of the rare places where Quebec performs better than others is the number of nurses per 1,000 population at 9.3, while the OECD average is 9.2.
Perverse effects
In addition, the number of doctors moving to the private sector, particularly general practitioners, is increasing. The result is that these doctors treat fewer patients, which reduces the number of doctors actually available per 1000 inhabitants.
Finally, government pressure to increase individual physician productivity has significant and costly negative impacts. As a result, many doctors now refuse to spend more than 20 minutes per medical consultation and also refuse to treat more than one or two medical problems at a time.
The result of this terrible approach is that the number of doctor visits is artificially inflated, medical treatments are unnecessarily delayed and patients lose many hours of work waiting for further appointments.
In short, we are facing the collapse of our public health system.