Distribution of family doctors | The appeal court rejects a challenge

(Montreal) The Court of Appeal has ruled that the GP distribution plan and the method used by the Minister are valid. The DR Mark Roper and his lawyer Me Julius Gray therefore failed to convince the judges that there was a real injustice to the people of Montreal.


In an emailed response to The Canadian Press, M saide Gray says he is disappointed and mentions that he is thinking about appealing to the Supreme Court.

In the judgment signed by Judges Stephen W. Hamilton, Martin Vauclair and Frédéric Bachand, the court upholds the first instance decision of Judge Dominique Poulin. We also underline the “cautious” nature of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The thesis defended by Me Gray and the DR Roper maintains that Montreal is at a disadvantage compared to most regions in Quebec. According to DR Roper has the worst GP registration rate and from one year to the next the minister is using his discretion to deprive the metropolis of new doctors in favor of other regions.

The complainants claimed the system used was “unreasonable” and even violated the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

However, the Court of Appeal judges came to the same conclusions as Justice Poulin, namely that the insufficient number of frontline GPs “is not due to the allocation of staff made by the Minister, but rather to the insufficient number of doctors to meet the need at the provincial level.

In his application, D. statedR Roper also criticized the fact that the number of registrations with the family doctor was not taken into account when calculating the staff distribution. He also criticized the Ministry of Health for not taking Montreal’s actual patient pool into account and relying only on population numbers.

However, the judges recalled that in this situation it is not the role of the courts to replace legislative, executive or administrative power.

The Canadian Press health content is funded through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. The Canadian Press is solely responsible for editorial selection.

Jordan Johnson

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