Nelson Sergerie, LJI Journalist
GASPÉ – Users of the Côte-de-Gaspé local health network are concerned about the quality of services at the future blood testing and vaccination centre that will soon be operating at a shopping centre in Gaspé.
Patients feel that the chosen location, the Place Jacques-Cartier shopping centre, “is not very healthy” and that parking there is already very difficult.
It is also noted that the escalators providing access to the upper floors are often out of service. Others mentioned that the elevator would not allow paramedics to evacuate patients from this location. Hemodialysis care activist Jean Lapointe had already expressed reservations about the development of the centre in a commercial complex, questioning the quality of the services that will be offered there due to these issues.
At the Gaspé Peninsula Integrated Health and Social Services Centre (CISSS), spokesperson Lou Landry wrote by email that “the owner of Place Jacques-Cartier has added parking spaces for people with disabilities, and the elevator is accessible. The Gaspé Peninsula CISSS places great importance on the accessibility of the location it uses and will continue to evaluate all possible options to improve this situation, according to the needs of the population,” states the email.
The CISSS explains that the transfer from the hospital centre to the new site is necessary because the spaces currently used will be required to provide patient care. The e dubbed a “multi-service centre” by Quebec last spring aims to create a service hub in a single location. In addition to Gaspé, the CISSS is targeting similar sites in Paspebiac, Grande-Rivière, Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Pointe-à-la-Croix and New Richmond.
In the Quebec government plan, these sites will offer vaccinations, blood tests and screening services. The Quebec government believes that the establishment of these centres will improve access to preventive health services.
Paying to get care
A patient who requested anonymity for the moment deplores being forced to pay for travel expenses between the Bay of Chaleur and Gaspé to receive care specific to his condition. The individual must travel 372 kilometres round trip to obtain recurring treatment. However, the travel does not fit into the pilot project launched in the spring to support people who travel more than 200 kilometres to receive a series of treatments for the same care on a three-month basis.
The patient mentioned that the treatment was recurrent, but administered as needed. He received treatment in May and again in August, exceeding the three-month limit.
The person appealed to the Gaspé Peninsula CISSS Complaints Commissioner to try to draw attention to his situation.
The CISSS responded that the formula was more generous than elsewhere in Quebec and that an analysis would be conducted at the end of the project, on March 31, adding that no further developments were planned.