Caroline Plante, The Canadian Press

QUEBEC CITY — Health Minister Christian Dubé is calling for the “social conscience” of Quebecers who don’t show up for their doctor’s appointments.

Mr. Dubé confirmed Tuesday while studying his ministry’s credits that Quebecers miss about 30,000 family medicine appointments each month. According to his calculations, that is 400,000 appointments out of around 18 million per year.

“They will tell me: ‘400,000 out of 18 million isn’t a lot’, but it’s a lot,” the minister said. “Even worse,” in specialty medicine, 10% of appointments are avoided, he added.

“It’s a bit like in a restaurant: you book four places and decide at the last minute without saying that you’re canceling three restaurants, I’m not sure if your social conscience is right,” complained Christian Dube.

“The same goes for our doctors. Quebecers need to say, “If I make an appointment and don’t go, I’m taking someone’s seat.” (…) You have to say: “We don’t have too many doctors, we don’t have too many appointments”.

During an exchange with Liberal MP André Fortin on Tuesday, Deputy Deputy Health Minister Stéphane Bergeron acknowledged that the “no-show” phenomenon was gaining momentum in Quebec.

“It’s a phenomenon that seems to be accelerating lately. The way to respond is first through information and awareness of the importance of announcing one’s absence whenever possible,” he said.

According to him, the ministry is developing technological tools to encourage those who need to resign their appointment to do so properly.

Work is underway, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Information Technology Reno Bernier said. “What is coming are new tools that make it easier to cancel appointments.

“It’s not standardized at the moment, but (…) what’s coming is a single platform for scheduling and tracking,” he explained.

For his part, Vincent Marissal of Québec solidaire wondered if the health network informed Quebecers who have an appointment with a specialist in hospital.

“I also hear and read comments from people who have an appointment with a specialist at the hospital and don’t show up. It makes no sense. Were you really notified? he asked himself.

Mr. Marissal described his own experiences and likened the network to a “madhouse”.