New patient targets for family doctors could hurt P.E.I.'s reputation, says national college

The College of Family Physicians of Canada is raising concerns over new targets for family doctors on P.E.I. and calling on all parties to work together to find a solution.

"I'm feeling pretty sad. There seems to have been a significant breakdown in trust and in the relationship, and that's really hard, when people stop being able to trust one another," college president Dr. Carrie Bernard told CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin.

Last week, the Medical Society of Prince Edward Island announced plans for legal action against Health P.E.I., citing what it says is a breach of its agreement with the province.

The society said the new targets for how many patients each doctor needs to accept are not what it agreed to when it signed a new physician services agreement with the province last year.

Bernard said that agreement, which made P.E.I. the first province to officially recognize family medicine as a specialty, a move that includes higher pay, was celebrated across the country.

But she said the recent policy development undermines that progress and can make physicians feel not valued and respected by the system in which they play a foundational role.

Health P.E.I.'s new operational guide includes key performance indicators, or KPIs, that include a requirement that each family doctor will see 24 patients a day, based on an average appointment being 15 minutes long.

It also says each full-time family doctor should have a minimum of 1,600 patients on the books, or panel size, which Bernard calls an "arbitrary number."

Penalties can be imposed if the minimum isn't met.

On Monday, P.E.I. Health Minister Mark McLane told CBC News that the targets are intended to help the government collect information and evaluate how the new physician services agreement is working.

He also pointed out that Health P.E.I. was giving doctors and their association six weeks to provide feedback on the new guidelines, and said there will be no punitive measures during the first year of the agreement.

Bernard agreed that accountability matters.

"I don't think any family physician thinks they should not be accountable. We expect the accountabilities, however, to be informed by the professionals who are actually providing the care," she said.

"This just sort of came out of nowhere, without consultation and discussion and collaboration and negotiation."