By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
The formal transfer of the territory of Bromont from the Haute-Yamaska local health network to the La Pommeraie network is “a little signature that makes a big difference,” according to veteran Councillor Claire Mailhot, the municipality’s point person on community services.
The transfer was made official on April 17 after more than six years of discussion and nearly 14 years of waiting – ever since the town of Bromont joined Brome-Missisquoi in 2010. “When we changed MRCs, all the files followed, except for public health,” Mailhot explained. This has had several knock-on effects, from confusing public health data during the COVID-19 pandemic to patients in Brome-Missisquoi being placed on a waiting list for a family doctor in Haute-Yamaska and then manually transferred, she said. She hoped the reorganization would lead to more complete health data, better resource allocation between the two health networks, and ideally to longer opening hours and the assignment of a new doctor to the local CLSC. “Also, if you’re waiting for a family doctor, you’ll now be on the right list.”
“We [in Bromont] have always been linked with Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins hospital, and this will formalize that fact,” Mailhot added.
Community services such as food aid, which are managed by volunteer action centres in collaboration with the public health network, will also be easier to manage, she said.
She said Bromont has been working with the La Pommeraie network on many key files since 2019. “Why did [the transfer] take so long? That’s above our pay grade, but we’ve been waiting for it for a long time.”
Health officials also believe the switch will lead to better data and improved personnel allocation practices. Nancy Corriveau, a spokesperson for the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS, told the BCN that the transfer was “good news.”
“Bromont data will be officially integrated into the RLS de la Pommeraie allowing access to data more representative of local reality, which will allow us to better distribute financial and human resources. Population portraits and the needs of the population of the RLS de la Pommeraie (including Bromont) will thus be more easily accessible,” she said in a brief email. Patients “will be directed to the Cowansville sector, where for the most part they were already in the habit of going for services.”
Brome-Missisquoi MNA Isabelle Charest explained in a Facebook post that the shift “will ensure better administrative organization of health services throughout the territory and better meet the needs of the population of Bromont and the RLS de la Pommeraie.”
The reorganization “aims to allow people currently waiting for a family doctor to transfer their request to the territory of La Pommeraie; improves the planning of medical staff in the targeted territories; and ensures an adjustment of the surveillance and evaluation databases of the public health directorate so that the data reflects the real state of the population by territory,” Charest wrote.