GAP

By Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiative

Bruce Langer is 75 years old. 

He’s suffered two heart attacks and does not have a family doctor in Quebec. 

“Dr. Sarah Olive at the University of Ottawa medical clinic was my doctor for over 20 years, so she had a lot of history with me,” said Langer, sitting in a garden in front of the St. Stephen’s Church in Chelsea. “In that 20-year span, I’ve had two heart attacks and two stent procedures. And so she was my family doctor and connected me to a lot of Ontario specialists…for follow up.”

Langer was told three years ago that the clinic would no longer be taking patients from across the river, unless they were university alumni or current students. With no family doctor, Langer now relies on the health ministry’s Primary Care Access Point, or GAP, and while he said he doesn’t have issues booking an appointment, he’s completely lost his patient-to-doctor relationship. 

No follow-ups with the same doctor and nobody following his medical history. Every time he goes to see a new doctor, he said he has to retell his entire medical story. 

“You definitely don’t get any of the kind of follow-up that you would with a consistent doctor or family doctor care,” said Langer. “They’re so overwhelmed with not being able to see you on a regular basis because there’s not enough doctors that they can’t maintain that consistency that you would normally have with the family doctor.”

According to the CISSS de l’Outaouais (CISSSO), there are currently 75,326 people in the Outaouais without a family doctor and 7,073 in the MRC des Collines region. 

That number is set to rise by several hundred next year as Wakefield MD Dr. Jacques Ménard announced last week that he will be retiring from the Wakefield Family Medical Clinic next June. 

Ménard will be the third Wakefield doctor to leave the clinic in the past two years, as the clinic lost both Dr. Folkerson and Dr. Sattenstein this past summer. The two village doctors left behind close to 1,500 local patients. 

To help ease this crunch, the Regional Department of General Medicine (DRMG) has created a new “gateway” for the GAP and keeps more than 62,000 open appointments per year for “orphan patients requiring a medical visit.”

Wakefield didn’t lose techs

The Outaouais was facing a major crisis this summer after several imaging technicians left the Hull and Gatineau hospitals for Ontario, where they could earn $30,000 more in salary. To combat this, the CISSSO added bonuses for medical techs to stay in the region. 

While the first round of funding was not equal among rural hospitals, the ministry eventually increased the bonuses to $22,000 for those working in Shawville, Maniwaki and Wakefield. CISSSO spokesperson Patricia Rhéaume told the Low Down that the Wakefield Hospital did not lose any medical technicians. 

“The three technician positions are filled at Wakefield [hospital]. 

No movement of this staff to other hospitals in the territory is currently planned,” said Rhéaume, adding that the health authority took a number of measures to avoid a major crisis this summer – one that Gatineau MD Dr. Peter Bonneville warned would end in more deaths. 

“In those sectors with greater challenges, for instance the operating room and the imaging department, action plans were applied to ensure continuity of care and avoid interruption in services,” added Rhéaume. “We are continuously working on ensuring the right patient is at the right place at the right time. Examples of this are the efforts made to re-orient patients presenting to the [emergency department] not needing emergency care and daily reevaluation of alternatives to hospitalizations for patients in need of care.”

Quebec patients ‘uninsured’

More and more Ontario clinics are saying no to Quebec patients – or doubling the rates for their out-of-province patients. Wakefield resident Andrea Rowe told the Low Down that her Ottawa doctor recently sent a letter stating that she – and other Quebec patients – are considered “uninsured.” The letter came with a list of updated fees that Rowe said are double what she used to pay. 

“They don’t consider us covered at all, even though we’re covered by Quebec,” said Rowe. 

She said she used to pay $50 for an appointment and Quebec would pay $40 of it. But now, with the fee increase – $102 for a short appointment or $232 for a long appointment – Rowe said she worries that she will still only get the $40 reimbursed and going to see her doctor of over 15 years will cost her greatly. 

“It’s such a big increase; it’s huge,” she said. “So, it’s gonna be over $60 that I have to pay just for a 10-minute visit.”

Other fees from the Ontario clinic include $30 for a referral note, $25 for a sick note and $225 for a driver’s medical examination and form.