Achi news desk-
Quebec City –
Quebec Liberal MNA Andre Fortin used Tuesday’s budget review to show the health minister how difficult it is to get a doctor’s appointment.
In the midst of a parliamentary committee, Fortin visited the “Quebec Medical Appointment Planner” website to try to get a consultation with his family doctor in the Aoutois area.
“It’s telling me: ‘There are no meetings that meet your search criteria currently available,'” he read aloud.
After that, the elected official tried to make an appointment with another doctor in the same group for family medicine, then in a clinic within a radius of 25 kilometers, without success.
“what are we doing?” He asked Health Minister Christian Dubé, who suggested he use the Guichet d’accès à la première ligne (GAP).
Fortin said his assistant, who does not have a family doctor, recently tried her luck with GAP in the Outaouais area, but was unable to get an appointment.
“So what should this person do?” Fortin repeated, pointing out that the government is asking Quebeckers not to go to emergency rooms.
He claimed that the Clic Santé portal often refers patients to fee-based services from private clinics.
Duba recalled that the family doctors committed to releasing 900,000 appointments every year. In two weeks he will know if these slots will indeed be made available to the Quivers.
Duba’s team revealed on Tuesday that the “crisis cell” established in 2022 to improve the situation in emergency departments will be maintained.
Fortin lamented that occupancy rates at many of the county’s emergency services are so high that they are putting patients’ lives at risk. “The situation hasn’t changed a bit,” he said.
Assistant Deputy Minister Dr. Stefan Bergeron replied that the crisis unit meets every two weeks and only met last Friday.
“There is a clear desire to perpetuate an operational cell with a focus on how to reduce the average length of stay in the emergency room, and improve treatment in the emergency room,” he said.
Fortin recalled during the exchange that the Coalition Avner Quebec (CAQ) promised in 2018 to reduce the average wait to 90 minutes to see a doctor in the emergency department.
He lamented that only four of the 115 emergency rooms in Quebec make it to the 90 minutes. At the Anna-Laberge Hospital in Chattoi, the wait is currently 13:04.
Small private hospitals will be geriatric clinics
The CAQ also promised during the 2022 election campaign to build two small private hospitals, one in Montreal and the other in Quebec City, to ease the burden on the health care system.
On Tuesday, Quebec Solidaire (QS) health auditor Vincent Marisel asked Minister Dubé about the conversion of these mini-hospitals, which he saw announced in the allocation books.
Duba confirmed that the mini-hospitals will eventually be converted into geriatric clinics, “much more geared towards the needs of an aging clientele.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 16, 2024.
