MONTREAL - A series of emotional ads signaling Quebec's doctor shortage have been released by the Federation of General Practitioners (FMOQ.)
One of the ads features a couple sitting back-to-back, crying as they hold a baby who needs a doctor, but doesn't have access to one.
The FMOQ says it has launched the ads in a bid to get the Quebec government to act on the problem.
"At this moment we have a shortage of more than one thousand family physicians," says Dr. Louis Godin, of the FMOQ.
"We have about two million people who do not have access to a family physician."
25 per cent of Quebecers do not have a family doctor. It's a situation that people like Oumar Kamara know all too well. He waited more than three hours in a clinic waiting room Tuesday so his son could see a doctor.
Quebec doctors face challenges
Competitive salary has long been considered one of the issues leading to the province's doctor shortage. Another challenge is a regulation requiring new family doctors to spend 12 hours a week working in hospital for the first 20 years of their careers.
The Charest government says it is working on trying to make the province more appealing to family doctors.