Students who are absent from school for five days or less no longer need to obtain a doctor’s note, except during certain ministerial exams.
Our parliamentary office has learned that Quebec continues to clear the paperwork imposed on primary care physicians.
The Ministry of Education sent a letter to the network yesterday asking “school service centers, school boards and private educational institutions to no longer require a medical certificate to justify the absence of ‘a student for health reasons during local examinations and when the absence does not last longer than 5 days’.
Quebec cannot require the application of the directive due to the autonomy of school service centres, but invites them to review their absenteeism policies accordingly.
A similar message was sent to CEGEPs and universities where the measure should apply to “any type of educational, self-study or assessment activity”.
- Listen to the Latraverse-Dubé meeting with Emmanuelle Latraverse and Alexandre Dubé via QUB :
Ministerial reviews
For example, a student who suffers from stomach or flu complaints no longer has to go to a doctor’s waiting room to get a doctor’s note.
The only exception is that a doctor’s note remains mandatory to avoid 4 ministerial examinationse and 5e secondary education, imposed on all students.
In the case of the ministerial tests of the 4e and 6e years of primary school and 2e secondary school, “the use of a medical certificate is left to the discretion of the management and the school team,” writes the Ministry of Education.
According to our information, Quebec believes it can free up around 100,000 appointments annually, although the exact number is difficult to estimate.
Households
The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, has started a large-scale clean-up of forms and other administrative requirements that increase doctors’ workload.
In November 2022, an internal survey by the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec (FMOQ) found that doctors spend 9.7 hours per week filling out forms.
Since then, Minister Dubé has announced various measures to relieve doctors.
Last May, Quebec announced its intention to introduce a bill to ban insurance companies and employers from requiring a medical prescription to obtain reimbursement.
The government plans to release 500,000 time slots for clinics.
Earlier this winter, the CNESST had to rely on doctors’ judgment to determine the medical follow-up schedule.
Negotiations
These measures represent rare good news in relations between the FMOQ and Minister Christian Dubé, who are at odds in the negotiations to extend the framework agreement for general practitioners.
Last weekend, Christian Dubé accused general practitioners of holding the people of Quebec “hostage” by removing appointment slots following the end of a bonus awarded for participation in the First Line Access Center.
The bonus in question expires today, but the minister says he is still optimistic about reaching a new agreement before the end of the day. “Negotiations are currently taking place,” he noted yesterday, emphasizing that a mediator had been appointed in the case.