An agreement that makes it easier for Quebec doctors to work in Ontario, and vice-versa, could worsen a shortage in western Quebec, say groups representing Quebec physicians.

"What we fear currently is that there will be more physicians from Quebec who will be interested in working in Ontario," Dr. Yves Robert, spokesman for the Collège des Médecins du Québec, said late last week, about two weeks after his college reached the deal with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

The colleges regulate doctors in their respective provinces.

The Quebec government had asked its province's college of physicians to look into such an interprovincial agreement amid a push from both provinces to reduce barriers to doctor mobility.

But Robert said the agreement may not offer equal benefits for both provinces.

He added that the problem is that doctors are paid more in Ontario — up to 30 per cent more in some specialties.

Officials from the Quebec college of physicians said they will monitor the situation closely in the coming months to find out if more doctors are leaving the province than before.

Dr. Marcel Guilbeault, head of the association of general practitioners of western Quebec, said hospitals in the Outaouais region are experiencing doctor shortages, but so are hospitals on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River.

"They probably won't wait for the doctors in Quebec to call them," said Guilbeault, who expects Ontario's hospitals to use the agreement as a tool to recruit doctors from Quebec.