Bill 114: Who broke trust?

I was dismayed by your editorial on Quebec's Bill 114.1 The claim that physicians broke the trust that forms the basis of the physician–patient relationship directly implies that, to maintain that trust, physicians have the primary responsibility for ensuring that emergency departments of major hospitals are staffed at all times. It also demonstrates an unfortunate lack of understanding of the critical physician-resource situation in this country and ignores the fact that emergency department physicians in a regional hospital require a unique skill set.

The relationship of trust is one that physicians hold dear and strive to protect and strengthen every day. Our patients trust us to provide an appropriate level of care at all times. Simply providing a warm body at a time of need is inappropriate: it poses a very real threat to the quality of care and to patient safety, and it threatens the very trust the editorial discusses. If we take it upon ourselves to staff important emergency departments with unwilling, overworked and underqualified physicians, we are doing both our profession and our patients a grave disservice.