Family medicine clinic in Hudson, Que., to be closed, citing Quebec’s Bill 2

A family medicine clinic in Hudson, Que., west of Montreal, will close, citing the implementation of Quebec’s controversial Bill 2.

Hudson Medical Center serves about 11,000 patients, who are predominantly English-speaking, according to Dr. Tara McCarty, the clinic’s family doctor and one of its co-owners.

It is the only bilingual GMF – French acronym for Family Doctor Group – In the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region, she says.

McCarty said Wednesday that the clinic will be forced to close on April 1 after three of the seven doctors practicing there have decided to leave the province in response to the new law.

“This has been quite a devastating situation in our clinic, and I’m sure in many others as well,” McCarty said. He said the law puts pressure on doctors to provide “unsafe care to our patients.”

“We’ll be told what to see, who to see, when to see them, how often to see them, how quickly to see them. And that’s not only dangerous, but it’s not the way we practice in our clinic,” McCarty said.

Bill 2 comes into effect from October 25 and links doctors’ salaries to key performance indicators, including the number of patients served and their degree of vulnerability.

Associations representing medical specialists, family doctors and medical students in Quebec, as well as the association representing pharmacy owners, have filed legal challenges against the law, with many saying it will negatively impact patient care.

Legault, family doctors resume talks

On Wednesday evening, Premier François Legault and Dr. Marc-André Amyot, President of Federation des médecins omnipracticiens du Québec (FMOQ) announced that the parties would “immediately resume formal discussions.”

“If an agreement is reached, the government will accept the amendments to Bill 2, knowing that a portion of the compensation for family physicians will depend on an increased number of Quebecers paying for them,” it said in a statement.

The joint statement was issued before information about the clinic’s closure was made public.

Asked whether resuming negotiations would impact the clinic’s closure, McCarty told CBC that nothing short of a suspension of the law would suffice.

In a statement released Wednesday, Hudson Medical Center said that over the next few weeks, each patient will receive a separate message directly from their family doctor specifying whether or not they will continue the practice, as well as next steps.

“Each doctor at (GMF) will make their own personal decision, which is best suited for them and their family in the current context,” the statement said, urging patients to avoid asking questions at receptions about their doctor’s future plans.

Patient Christy Lovett said four generations of her family, including herself and her two children, have been treated at the center.

He described the closure as “devastating for the entire community.”

“We don’t have a hospital here,” she said, adding that the center is “the only place we can get medical care.”

“I don’t understand how they could do something so destructive to medicine. It’s almost as if they intended to dramatically harm public health in Quebec. It’s astonishing, to be honest.”