“Quebec Minister Christian Dubé Calls for Decompartmentalization of Health Professions to Broaden Scope of Practice”

After pharmacists and nurses, Minister Christian Dubé wants to decompartmentalize 18 professions in the health field, in order to broaden their scope of practice.

The Minister of Health gave the example of paramedics and social workers, who could be given more responsibilities in order to take care of a greater part of the clientele.

Currently, health professionals work a lot “in silos”, lamented Mr. Dubé, as part of the study of appropriations in the National Assembly, in response to a question from Liberal MP André Fortin.

For example, paramedics could be given more autonomy to decide, possibly with the assistance of a remote nurse, not to transport a patient to the hospital when it is not necessary.

But to get there, Quebec will first have to create a professional order for paramedics, said the minister.

However, the minister did not commit to a specific timetable. These negotiations are delicate, he confided, since it is a question of removing acts from certain professionals, such as family doctors, to entrust them to others.

Agreement with specialists

In addition, Christian Dubé affirms that an agreement is imminent with the medical specialists in order to announce new catch-up targets in the waiting lists for surgeries.

The Minister says he hopes that the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec (FMSQ) will publicly commit to reaching these new targets. He thus wishes to avoid a repetition of the recent failure in the recovery of surgeries.

In June 2021, Mr. Dubé pledged to reduce the waiting list, which had around 145,000 patients. Today, it has about 159,000.

Among the points to be negotiated with the specialists, Quebec wants to make sure to review the organization of the work of the professionals in support during the surgeries. For example, operating rooms close at 2:00 p.m. because a nurse will finish at 4:00 p.m., which is before the scheduled end of the operation.

Mr. Dubé also confided that the renewal of the collective agreements with the nurses provides for differentiated offers not only for unfavorable hours, but also for working in certain more remote regions. Nurse clinicians could also receive a higher salary than their technician colleagues.

More details will follow.