In a few months, I’ll no longer have a family doctor. The clinic he practises at, in my neighbourhood of Saint-Henri, in Montreal, will soon close its doors. The reason? Not enough physicians to keep it staffed. When it shutters, I—and likely thousands in my community—will join over 1 million Quebecers currently left on their own to sort out their medical problems.
“Quebec’s health-care system,” Montreal Gazette health reporter Aaron Derfel concluded recently, “is now arguably the worst it’s ever been.” It is likely to get worse. Quebec is losing more general practitioners than it produces: they either retire, enter private practice, or leave the province altogether. Those hoping to stay are exasperated by a restrictive framework that dictates where they can practise. The formula that the province uses, established to ensure equitable distribution of medical staff, has instead resulted in multiple Quebec regions—notably Montreal—being severely underserved. Quebecers seeking care often have no choice but to head to already overflowing emergency rooms. And when they get to the ER, patients wait, and wait—then wait some more. Early this year, the Quebec Association of ER Physicians told CTV News that patients were waiting “up to seven hours or longer in some hospitals to see a physician” and on average were spending “close to 24 hours on an ER stretcher, waiting for a bed to open up in the system.”
