{"id":9457,"date":"2025-11-14T22:25:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/14\/some-doctors-skeptical-of-quebecs-pledge-to-soften-controversial-health-care-bill\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T22:25:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T01:25:43","slug":"some-doctors-skeptical-of-quebecs-pledge-to-soften-controversial-health-care-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/14\/some-doctors-skeptical-of-quebecs-pledge-to-soften-controversial-health-care-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Some doctors skeptical of Quebec\u2019s pledge to soften controversial health-care bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>OttawaSome doctors in western Quebec say they\u2019re unconvinced by the province\u2019s promise that it won\u2019t apply certain aspects of a controversial new health-care law.Province has offered some concessions, but physicians fear Bill 2 remains intactKimberley Molina  \u00b7 CBC News  \u00b7 Posted: Nov 14, 2025 4:52 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Some physicians in western Quebec are skeptical of the province\u2019s promise to rescind certain aspects of Bill 2. (S_L\/Shutterstock)Some doctors in western Quebec say they\u2019re unconvinced by the province\u2019s promise that it won\u2019t apply certain aspects of a controversial new health-care law.Bill 2, which was adopted Oct. 25 and is set to take effect in the new year, links doctors\u2019 compensation to performance targets relating to the number of patients they care for. It also imposes fines of up to $500,000 per day on doctors who take \u201cconcerted action\u201d to challenge the government\u2019s policies.  Shortly after it was passed, the province agreed to two concessions: maintaining a premium paid to specialists when patients are referred to them by a family doctor, and continuing to pay a 30 per cent office expense subsidy directly to doctors rather than to their family medicine group.Quebec tries to ease tensions with doctors, says it won\u2019t have inspectors track their work  On Thursday, the province also said it would back off on a plan to assign inspectors and to ensure doctors are following the law.Despite the province\u2019s assurances, however, those elements have not been removed from the legislation, and some doctors fear they could be resurrected. We\u2019ve fought all we can, and now this is just a kick in the face, where they\u2019re blaming us for their failings- Dr. Trevor Hennessey\u201dThis makes no sense,\u201d said Dr. Trevor Hennessey, currently chief of the department of anesthesiology for Centre int\u00e9gr\u00e9 de sant\u00e9 et services sociaux de l\u2019Outaouais (CISSSO), the region\u2019s health network. (Hennessey has submitted his resignation and will leave his job at the end of December.)\u201dThe physicians in our region have done amazing with what resources we have, but we\u2019re tired, we\u2019re exhausted. We\u2019ve fought all we can, and now this is just a kick in the face, where they\u2019re blaming us for their failings.\u201dDr. Trevor Hennessey, head of anesthesiology for the Outaouais region\u2019s health network, says he\u2019s concerned certain elements of Bill 2 remain despite the province\u2019s promise not to apply them. (Radio-Canada\/Evans Murray)It\u2019s a sentiment shared by Jean Pigeon, a spokesperson for the health-care advocacy group SOS Outaouais.\u201dIt\u2019s based on performance, solely performance, and we\u2019re putting that burden onto the doctors for them to perform in this environment. If not, they\u2019ll be sanctioned,\u201d he said.\u201dWhat we\u2019re asking as a coalition, [the law] needs to be suspended and to create a better environment to discuss better accessibility for doctors.\u201dChanges to law \u2018not enough\u2019Dr. Isabelle Gagnon, a family physician and chief of general medicine at CISSSO, doesn\u2019tbelieve such minor modifications will make much of a difference to Bill 2\u2019s overall impact.\u201dWe are profoundly shocked by the attitude of the government during all the negotiations this fall,\u201d she said, calling on the province to demonstrate its respect for Quebec\u2019s doctors.\u201dSo no, it\u2019s not enough for me.\u201dThe chief of general medicine for the region\u2019s public health network says she\u2019s concerned Bill 2 will discourage doctors from practising in the province. (Jonathan Dupaul\/Radio-Canada)Without a more substantial overhaul, Gagnon said she\u2019s concerned Bill 2 could hamper efforts to attract doctors to the province, at a time when many existing ones are fleeing.\u201dWe already have a doctor from France that said he doesn\u2019t want to come anymore because of [Bill 2],\u201d she said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really dangerous to let that [law] continue. Every day is a day that we waste.\u201dABOUT THE AUTHORKimberley Molina is a reporter with a focus on health-related stories for CBC Ottawa. She can be reached at kimberley.molina@cbc.ca.Twitter<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OttawaSome doctors in western Quebec say they\u2019re unconvinced by the province\u2019s promise that it won\u2019t apply certain aspects of a controversial new health-care law.Province has offered some concessions, but physicians fear Bill 2 remains intactKimberley Molina \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Nov 14, 2025 4:52 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,1047,1],"tags":[116,1046],"class_list":["post-9457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-ontario","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-ontario"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}