Updates

In 2008, the Quebec government mandated all 94 Centres for Health and Social Services to implement a centralized waiting list for family physicians (Guichet d’Accès aux Clientèles Orphelines or GACO). The goal of the GACO was to help ‘orphan’ patients find a family physician, with priority given to vulnerable patients. However, there was no unified strategy to achieve this goal across the centres, which led to variability in service design and inequitable impacts. A program evaluation study from 2012 showed that GACOs were successful in reducing the number of people without a family physician. Nevertheless, despite financial incentives for physicians to treat vulnerable patients, more than 70% of patients enrolled through a GACO are ‘non-vulnerable’. Additional strategies are thus needed to help vulnerable patients to access timely care, as Quebec continues to be the province with the lowest percentage of the population reporting to have a regular doctor.