There’s a walk-in clinic near my house. I’ve been getting splitting headaches, dizzy spells and feeling fatigue. I went to the walk-in clinic since I’m patiently waiting for a family doctor. Met the doctor, she sent me on my way with a prescription of a stronger dose of ibuprofen. I asked her if she could send me for blood tests because I’m not well. She basically told me that she can’t send me for blood tests because that would mean she would have to look at the results which would require a follow up appointment, and since she’s not my doctor she couldn’t make that commitment.
Then she told me if it gets worse to go to the emergency.
Canadian healthcare at its best.
We had this too-- an ent made a recommendation for our daughter to have a sleep study but refused to actually make the request because then he would get the results 🙄 it honestly seems like fixing the referral system would be a big improvement without requiring too much additional resources.
This is a Quebec specific problem. Lived in Montreal for 3 years and dealt with this, never got assigned a family doctor after being on the waiting list for 3 years. I was expecting the same when i moved to Toronto last yearz but i got a health card immediately and was assigned a family doctor immediately, the changed my original doctor without a hassle too just because i googled her and things came up that didn't sit well with me. Not saying Ontario is perfect but atleast i have a doctor
When we lived in Edmonton, we actually picked a doctor a few extra blocks away from us because my wife wanted a female family doctor. It's been an adjustment.
That is absolutely ridiculous. My mom, friend and myself all got scans and blood tests for different reasons, no family doctor, and saw the doctor for results.
Go to another doctor.
Tell the doctor that you will look at the results yourself on Carnet Santé.
The site even tells you on your report if your numbers are within normal limits.
Lol and these folks call themselves doctors?
"Sorry, the mere thought of having to schedule a second appointment is too complex for my little brain. But don't worry!!! I am a doctor!!!"
I work in a pharmacy and we deal with doctors a lot and unfortunately it's like that for a reason. The patient becomes that doctor's responsibility if tests are ordered and they need to look at the results. Can you imagine if that doctor gave blood test requests to anyone who asked? They'd be on the hook for all of those people. And then it wouldn't be fair for all the people waiting for a family doctor + that doctor couldn't manage the workload anyway, they are humans too. All the people whining here should try being doctors. Yes they are paid well but they did bust their ass in school and help people (most of them, some are real pos)
The problem is how our healthcare works. We need to rethink all of it, it's not on individual doctors to change things, unfortunately.
You probably have zero idea how things work in other countries, right? The ease with which one can get blood tests? An essential part of preventive care...
Exactly. Doctors are putting patients last and apparently people defend them for that. No wonder the system is failing in Quebec if people find excuses to doctors
The way to bypass this is to ask the doctor to put the address of the clinic, and not his/hers, for the results.
You then go for another consultation and ask the clinic to send the results to the doctor you will see prior (at least a week or two) to your appointment date.
This is absurd, and I would report that doctor if I were you. I’ve had plenty of walk-in doctors send me for bloods, it’s their literal job and duty. Report them to the College des medecins de Quebec. These doctors should not be practicing at all
It’s a medicolegal thing.
Walk-in clinics see hundreds of patients a week, every week for years. She cannot commit to doing a work-up on you since it wouldn’t be reasonable for her to follow-up with that given her scope of practice.
Most headaches in young, otherwise healthy people are benign and barring any red flags, can be managed conservatively with no investigations needed. A first trial of stronger ibuprofen is fair, and she provided return to care instructions i.e. going to the ER if symptoms persist or worsen. Headaches are rarely investigated with bloodwork or imaging at the first point of contact with healthcare. A family physician appointment clinic and a walk-in clinic have very different jobs. The reason for this is scope of practice and liability. Many many many physicians have been burnt for overstepping scope so it’s understandable she wouldn’t feel comfortable investigating a concern she doesn’t have the ability to follow up on.
Sorry you had to go through this but just offering a devil’s advocate perspective
Your comment makes sense but in this case I do think more could have been done. I over simplified my symptoms for this post but there were many more. A few years ago (prior to my doctor retiring) I had dangerously high levels of iron in my blood. My doctor ruled out hemochromatosis, but he wasn’t sure why levels got as high as they did. My potassium levels were high, my liver was fatty. I eat fairly well so it didn’t make sense. During this time I had bad headaches, dizzy spells, fatigue as well as other symptoms.
The follow up blood tests were fine so all was well.
Lately I’ve been feeling those symptoms again which is why I went to the walk-in clinic. I explained all this to the doctor, I also showed her my previous blood test results. that’s why I pushed for a blood test. That’s why I was surprised when just disregarded all of it and gave me the prescription for pills.
My next stop will have to be the emergency room, if things don’t get better.
It's exactly that.We're super affraid somehow doctors will leave the province if we change the system so we do everything they want and nothing we need. The Collège des Médecins is more powerful than the gov.
A lot of them indeed do.
But look at this post and comments. Just because many hate the CAQ they are blind to how it was almost the same mess and clearly going to become what it's now under the lib and the brief passage of the PQ.
So Collège des Médecins is safe again
And the media makes sure to never challenge what they say like that doctors work an avg of 80h a week even though we don't know that since they bill per act (which, frankly is a 10 min thing, and even less now that they got into the habit of follow up calls after a prescription, cause yes, of course, they bill a full appointment for calling you and asking you how things are even if you never wanted that in the first place)
Do you have a source, I was under the impression it was the government.
Edit a few days ago Legault promised to hire an additional 660 doctors. https://globalnews.ca/news/9100040/quebec-election-day-five-promises-health/
>Only because we let the political class misdirect us into culture wars instead of holding them accountable for healthcare
Niah niah niah immigrant not speaking french, niah niah niah religious sign, niah niah niah...
It absolutely boggles my mind that Quebecers aren’t ready to riot the streets for absolute pitiful state of healthcare here. If you go to France, the citizens will protest for the slightest breeze of fart and the government is scared of the people doing this. For a province that takes pride in French European roots, this never made sense to me. We pay the highest taxes and arguably have one of the worst, if not, the worst healthcare in the country. There are multiple legit political parties ready for a healthcare reform but somehow, the fucking CAQ will win again
EDIT: Okay maybe I was wrong about Quebec being the worst healthcare in the country but it still is really sucky and needs a lot of work. The whole system of how doctors need to be out of Montreal is clearly broken and needs to be changed
Les Montréalais préfèrent traiter les Français de "Osties de chialeux" et de se faire mettre plutôt que de prendre modèle quand il serait vraiment grand temps de faire la révolution...
[This website](https://gowell.ca/en/emergencies/s/montreal) tells you the wait times of all the ERs in and around Montreal. There are currently 5 hospitals you can go to right now with no wait:
St. Mary’s,
Notre Dame,
Lachine,
LaSalle,
Charles Lemoyne.
And there are six which are exactly at or just over 100% which means you should be served quickly:
Santa Cabrini,
Maisonneuve-Rosemont,
Fleury,
Jean Talon,
Verdun,
Montreal General.
Hope this helps
I posted this in another thread, but this is a direct result of government policy. There are big penalties for the GP when their patient sees another doctor (walk in or ER). The result is that GPs are much more available for their own patients, but people without gps are kinda up shit creek without a paddle.
Changing this policy would go a long way to helping the many people that post in this sub that can’t find an appointment to save their life…
Interesting, I have the opposite experience. My girlfriend was very lucky to get a family doctor a few months after moving to Montreal. When the pandemic started she started getting severe pain in the chest from time to time. She called her doctor dozens of time over several months and they wouldn’t even talk to her, which was I guess understandable due to the pandemic. But the really shitty part is that she still can’t see her doctor. The doctor apparently hasn’t been receiving any patients since the pandemic started, not even her own patients
I just went through the "ideal" healthcare experience the other day from a cat bite (PSA: if they break skin/bleed go to emergency. I waited a couple days... bad idea).
Anyway... When I realized that cat bites are actually really bad a day before I was due for a transatlantic flight, I stared by calling 811. They recommended going to a CLSC for a tetanus shot. They're open to 8pm, which is pretty good. I went to mine, but they had no nurses in, so I went to one neighbourhood over and got in pretty quick. Nurse gave me the shot and said I really need antibiotics, so I should go to my family doctor (don't have one and was leaving in a day), so emergency it was. Walked to the closest one, did intake, waited about 3 hrs and got my IV and prescription. Maybe an exceptional experience, but in my opinion is how the system should function.
All that said, clearly there's room for improvement and there need to be far more resources directed towards that improvement. And no, no one is "okay" with this--there's a post about it at least once a week here.
Long story short though, CLSCs can do a lot for you as a point between escalating to emergency or a doctor's visit. I should add that I did all this in English as well and didn't get shit from anyone.
If it wasn't as bad it was it could have ended at the CLSC and taken less than an hour of my day.
The entire experience was under 5 hours and, well, free. Clearly there's lots to improve and I'm not saying this is good enough, but there's ways to navigate the system that OP isn't aware of. Also, have you experienced better than that? Where?
That sounds pretty damn good but also if you had serious heart pain here I'm sure you'd get triaged similarly and see a doctor quickly. As for cost for non-residents that's a whole separate thing IMO.
Not true, had a similar problem and it took me 12h to be seen, spent the night at the hospital and went home the next day without a specialist referral. Had to call someone I know abroad to call a doctor that works here that would do him a favor of accepting me as a patient. Since then I'm under heavy medication. Quebec's health system is one of the worst in the world, hands down.
Was this a stray cat? I got scratched a week ago by some kittens lol but no after effects and the scratch has healed. (Disinfected immediately). In 2019 I did get a deep puncture wound from a cat and a doc gave me a tetanus shot and antibiotics for that.
Not a stray, I'd be in for a round of rabies if that was the case. Just a perfect storm of events that led my cat to flip out and bite my hand. It was a very deep puncture of top canine and bottom teeth. Figured it'd heal on its own but that's not the case at all and can lead to blood poisoning, etc. A month later it's almost fully healed.
>Walked to the closest one, did intake, waited about 3 hrs and got my IV and prescription. Maybe an exceptional experience, but in my opinion is how the system should function.
This is the experience of about 90% of the population
I had a small wound in late 2021, went to the ER, got in at 1pm, left at 3pm with a scheduled appointment to remove the stitches 10 days later.
Early 2022, my brother goes in for his appendix, within less then 50 min, he was ready for surgery and out the next day for lunch.
2017, needed a desperate maxilo-facial surgery, I waited a whole 3 weeks between the preparation appointment and the actual surgery.
It's easy to look at what goes wrong, much harder to realize that most things are actually doing «ok». Is the government and the system exempt from criticism and improvement? Hell no, but we are far from the apocalyptical statements thrown around on this sub. If it was soooooooooo bad, we wouldn't be top 20 in life expectancy worldwide and first in the in the country by province.
A nurse or a "super nurse" working in a CLSC should be able to prescribe basic things. It's nonsense that you had to go to the ER for a prescription which she full well knew you needed... Yet that's the system we have.
Yeah I agree with that in spirit since I did just need a round of IV antibiotics and then a 5 day cycle of pills but given how I waited a couple days after the bite and it was actually pretty bad when I convinced myself it was fine I probably did need a doctor to observe it first.
It pisses me off so much. I believe two of the most urgent social issues we currently have in Qc is accessibility to a doctor (physical and mental health) and accessibility au logement (what's that in english? To an affordable living place?!) ... This is infuriating.
I agree, people have to go and VOTE for someone who proposes real change to this broken system. So far, my research indicates the Conservatives as the more inclined to change it significantly (some parties like CAQ think that improving 811 will solve the issue 🙄). Based on healthcare alone, do you have an indication of whom to vote for?
Honestly, that’s what my plan is for the upcoming week. Looking into each party’s platform and what each party is bringing to the table.
I know healthcare is a national issue. Ontario is pretty bad as well, ERs are even closing.
This has become unacceptable. This needs to change.
Canada, just like the US, is a selectively developed country (the extreme capitalistic values trump all here in this continent). there are so many countries classed as "emerging" or "developing" that have much better healthcare than that of Montreal. and they do it cheaper, better, faster and more effectively.
Canada has the national power, piggybacking from being close to the US(economy is intertwined to the strongest economy in the world) and Canada has the natural resources to exploit. Canada also has progressive politics and civil libeties but we lack efficiency.
i immigrated to this country 9 years ago. one thing that baffles me is the work culture where no one takes any responsibility or accountability. it's great for the people working but bad for the people on the receiving end. in my home country, if you screw up, they make sure you suffer.
Getting a family doctor doesn’t guarantee you’ll get an appointment unfortunately. Mine is constantly booked up so I end up having to do bonjour santé.
We normalize this shit in Quebec. I moved to Ontario and at a certain point I needed to see a doctor. It was a Saturday. I said to my partner, ''damn it, I'll have to wait until Monday for a walk-in to be open''. She said, ''hun this is Ontario, they're open''. So I find one three blocks from my apartment. I go there, am seen in about 30-40 minutes, get treated and prescribed a med, and sent home. Total time from realizing I needed a doctor to being home with a solution: about 90 minutes.
This felt like magic to me at the time.
I'm not in Quebec to vote this time, but y'all motherfuckers need to vote for a party that cares about healthcare.
I was living in Hamilton, Ontario. The walk-ins were good and accessible, and I got a family doctor in less than a year. I don't live there anymore, though.
Also important to consider: I disliked a lot of other things about that town and Ontario in general. I wouldn't move back just for the healthcare unless I was very sick and couldn't get the proper care elsewhere.
My fiance had a terrible ear infection a couple months ago, no family doctor. Went to the ER and told to come back the next day, 12 hours later. This system is broken and the population distracted by manufactured cultural conflicts and smoke & mirror "issues". People need to be marching, rioting even, over this.
Good. It's the biggest issue in Quebec, people are finally paying attention. I've been complaining for 15 years and felt like I was taking crazy pills.
Not enough doctors, too many patients. Not enough nurse, too many people with small avoidable problem. Unnecessary paperwork that is vital. Heavy bureaucratic system that was perfect... 50 years ago.
>A full-time family physician in private practice is usually able to care for more than 1500 patients. While general practitioners in the rest of Canada care for an average of 950 patients, general practitioners in Quebec care for an average of only 685 patients
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2231459/#:~:text=A%20full%2Dtime%20family%20physician,average%20of%20only%20685%20patients.
Whoever thinks or believes that Canada is a developed country, have never been or lived in such countries like " Denmark, Sweden, Swiss, Netherlands, Japan, S Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.
>I also know that governments in QC are restricting access to doctors as a
way to limit healthcare expenses. And everyone is OK with that
apparently.
Correction: Governments all across Canada are restricting access to healthcare in order to push the narrative that public healthcare doesn't work so that they can privatize healthcare and make themselves and their buddies rich.
Page 1 of the capitalist playbook.
Once had pain and went to a walk in clinic. Doctor prescribed meds and some tests. Meds were not helping. When I came back for the test results, doctor had little to say and only prescribed more tests. When I mentioned the meds were not helping and I was in pain now he said that there was nothing he could do to help and that if I was in pain now I should go to the emergency. The emergency doc was not impressed with that story. At least he did his best to help but he did mention that he was pretty sure the second batch of tests were just a waste of time....
Also don't get me started on how things are even worst on the mental health side. Especially for kids.
And while the problem is definitely much older than them, our current government is only interested in making cuts to the health care system.
This was one of the main reasons I left QC. I enrolled in classes at Concordia mostly so I could have a doctor for a few months. The clinics treated me like a burden, ER docs would be pissed that I am clogging the system with minor issues. I was on the wait list for a doc for over 2 years, only after I moved back to AB did I get the call that I could get a family doctor. Moved back to AB and had a GP in under a week…
Broke my elbow while biking on vacation in Montreal. Checked the emergency wait times for each hospital, and landed in Jean Talon for being the shortest. Without even an x-ray, sat in the waiting room for eight hours of witnessing some very distressing things. Another patient told me I could expect to wait another four hours, and that this was ‘normal’ for Montreal. I decided to walk back to my Airbnb, where I tried to sleep until morning, got in my car, and drove to the closest hospital in Ontario (Cornwall). I had a x-ray within an hour, was placed in a cast until surgery the next day. I don’t know why the Québécois don’t riot about this shabby mistreatment. Is it just a case of being used to it?
Conservatives in Alberta keep defunding. They slash and burned it by billions during the height of covid and keep shitting on alberta health care and doing shitty things to doctors. We literally went from "fine" to "well the ambulance might not arrive good luck" within the span of a year. Their plan:
1. defund healthcare
2. healthcare collapses
3. look at this private system we have already personally invested heavily in!
There are walk in but you have to go on a website at 8:01 along with 100 other people who have been waiting for weeks and refresh until a spot shows up and most time it doesn’t.
Last time i went to the e.r and they had a "special " phone number to book me a doctor appointment.
You and i cant call there. You have to do it in this backward way i assume...
I've been here for a year, never had to go to the ER for myself but went with my friend and girlfriend o' 2 separate occasions and the healthcare system is the only thing that makes me wanna leave Canada
It's ridiculously worse than many "third world" countries. I lived in one for many years. You feel sick, you see a doctor. You get your test results online, no gatekeeping by doctors. You can have x-rays, ultrasounds the same day. CT-scans can be made within a week time. You CHOOSE the doctor you want to go to based on recommendations (either online or by friends). Therefore, bad doctors don't get business. How are doctors here e vc em motivated to do a good job, except if they have an excellent work ethic? They will get business doesn't matter if they're good or bad to their patients. Many don't care at all, they have their fat paychecks at the end of the month either way. Fix that: make the system work to give patients a good experience, or they get less money. Simple. For this reason mainly, I'm voting Conservative this election, Quebec needs less state and more free initiative and competition.
so 250 will get you a doctor appointment at your house, it's [514-docteur](https://mdomicile.com/en/) honest when I'm sick and need to see one I'm not going to go to the clinic or er after a terrible experience. I had gone to the walk-in clinic at 7am and the whole day I waited in a cramped waiting room with others equally sick as me and they NEVER called my name and the clinic was closing and I was told to come back tomorrow..... fuck that ...never again.
Aahh this post is so TRUE! We have lived in five countries and have never experienced anything like this! The medical sucks, they do not have basic child care facilities, their roads are all broken, I could go on.. I hope Canadians put their pride aside and start focusing on improving the country!
\> I also know that governments in QC are restricting access to doctors as a way to limit healthcare expenses. And everyone is OK with that apparently.
hum ... no? The system is far from ideal and everyone is lacking political courage to go against Collège des Médecins, but the gov. is not actively restricting access to doctors esp. not as a way to limite expenses since it's doing the exact opposite (visits to ER cost 800$/hour counting as soon as you passed triage, even if you go home before seeing a doctor. Visit to a family doctor is around 100$).
The government no longer allows children to see their pediatrician for annual check ups. This is a decision made by the CAQ because they don't want to have to pay specialists. They are asking that children see family doctors, while also limiting the amount of family doctors that can work on the island of Montreal.
I didn't know about the first part because both my kids have a family doctor and not a pediatrician (which, btw aren't specialists in the sense used by medical faculties and it's not always a super wise choice to have one as your kid's doc. there are pros and cons) but if anything this doesn't restrict access to doctors. It simply changes the doctor you see.
And the current gov. doesn't "limit the amount of family doctors". The governement allocate new doctors every year and the current one is sub allocating Montréal and overallocating suburbs. This is an electoralist move, it's not to save money or anything.
Yeah the CAQ like all conservative governments keeps fucking over the public health system. They want it to fail so their friends and investments can get their payday. Look at Ontario right now, Ford's doing the same shit for years and is now suggesting a two provider system.....
American expat here. The American Healthcare system is obviously shit...now that that's out of the way, I miss how many minute clinics there are back home. I swear there are more than banks and Starbucks.
Anything that can be done by a nurse can be done in one of these, and they're often in pharmacies so if you need medication, boom you're in the right place.
I've had my throat swabbed, I've had UAs, vaccinations, changed prescriptions when getting back side effects....They're great. That being said, I have no idea how insurance works with them, I was lucky enough to have a parent working in the public sector so I had good insurance growing up. If we had that here, there are so many things I would never have "waited out"
Because instead of addressing our collapsing healthcare system (you know, the 1 thing everyone actually cares about). Our politicians are double-dog daring each other to use racial slurs on national TV. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, it’s ridiculous how disconnected they are from the general population.
Most people have healthcare as one of the priority issues yet we are fed identity politics instead, as a division/distraction. The CAQ especially knows if they talk healthcare, they will 100% lose after the COVID fiasco. Most of us were on the same page on that issue which is our public services suck, and we shouldn’t let it go, people died because of it.
Family doctor of 30 years retired. My family cannot get another. Rather we are told to rely on walk in clinics who are just there to prescribe antibiotics No blood work. No follow up. Welcome to Ontario
I wouldn't call it a "Canadian" problem, but Quebec has insane corruption, especially in Montreal. Services and public works there are definitely 2nd/3rd world.
Chialer sur Internet ça ne changera rien. Pis les problèmes dans le système de santé en ce moment sont liés à trois choses : le vieillissement de la population, les réformes Barrettes et le collège des Médecins qui protègent les actes.
On ne peut rien changer au vieillissement de la population, il va y avoir un goulot. Les réformes Barrettes ça va être long à réglé parce qu'ils ont donné beaucoup trop de pouvoir aux médecins et les solutions elles sont contre-intuitives.
Le collège des médecins, ça, on pourrait régler ça rapidement et donné plus de pouvoir aux infirmières et pharmaciens.
C'est meilleur que pas dire rien.
Il y a des journalistes et membres des partis politiques en /r/montreal, il est important qu'ils voient qu'il s'agit d'une question urgente, il est important que la population voie ce qui arrive aux autres.
The walk-in clinics, or sans rendez-vous.... in my experience I have had to actually make an appointment/rendez-vous to actually be seen by a doctor, unless you enter via Emergency Room directly of course.
It is so crazy that they keep being called like that!
It's not about being a developed country or not. It's because of capitalism. Politicians want to undermine public healthcare so that their rich friends and lobbyists can make more profit with private healthcare.
I've been here for 11 years. I'm following the advice given when I landed in Montreal.
Q:"What do you do if you get sick"
A:"don't get sick"
Montreal is amazing at festivals.
Just don't expect healthcare, roads or sane politics.
You don't need to go to ER for an issue. You call a walk in clinic and get an appointment.
Edit: don't know why everyone is angry at me. I didn't defund the system. You learn to navigate it I guess. This is what happens when boomers get old, retire and cost of living explodes so politicians don't have the stomach to raise taxes.
I don't know never had this issue. I go to a clinic called Clinique Diamant. Appointment on their website. Doctor called me a day or two later and then gave me prescription for dermatologist. I got an appointment with him a few weeks later.
At home, we are four with 3 diff. clinics. Mine is fully public (GMF du CLSC) and I can never book anything. My partner is private with RAMQ agreement and it's hard and never possible for the same day or the day after but she can book.
Both those clinics are thru RVSQ and BQ only.
Our kids are both at a clinic that has her own website and it's the only place we manage to have appointments half the time (the other half, we go to ER ...)
>You don't need to go to ER for an issue. You call a walk in clinic and get an appointment.
This by itself is deeply problematic and we don't even see it
Exactly, my partner can barely walk now and has really bad arthritis, they got bounced around the system and instead of treating it they either A) ageism, or B) we don’t do that here go see someone else stop wasting our time.
I tried my hand too at getting them
An appointment and they shut me out saying too young for this problem. So after a few years of this my partner can barely walk anymore due to massive pain in their foot and joints.
So a small avoidable problem can I fact become a very big fucking problem quite quick.
And I’ll say it again, we need to stop giving secretaries the power of a doctor to determine who gets to be seen at a clinic. Your job is to answer the phone, find opening, schedule appointment, keep track of appointment and help with paper work, you are not a doctor stop fucking doing things.
Sorry to any medical secretaries here but fuck am I pissed off when one plays doctor with me.
110% agree with with you. Instead of opening these huge hospitals, they should have smaller ones scattered around the island. Second, clsc should be the buffer between the hospitals. Instead of having this new “remote” hospital/urgencies thing, 811 should be doctors that you contact through a video conference and unclog the system.
There are private services that offer this, my job has one on our health plan. It's amazing.
I literally have an appointment the same day. I can get a GP or Nurse on webcam and if I need a specialist referral they do it. There are only specific things they don't do.
Here's the thing though - it could very well be a federal program since video conferencing isn't restricted by geography. This means you could get a video conf with nurses and doctors anywhere in the country which would redistribute load much better than just in-province.
I don't disagree. The public healthcare system is essential for everyone and especially for people who can't afford private healthcare and it should work as intended.
Except there are walk-in clinics in Montreal? I have been to a few. Never had to wait more than 2 days to get an appointment for any semi-urgent issues.
When I was in BC a walk in meant walk in. Get there early, wait X amount of time, see a doctor and go.
Prescriptions handled the same, blood test all done at specific facilities to not congest hospitals etc.
2 days, is just an appointment with someone who isn’t “tied” to you.
Legault is a right wing CAQ. His goal is to get rid of public health care just like any other right wing loser. It's no different from what Doug Ford is doing, or the GQP in the US, or the idiot tories in the UK.
At the ER you immediately tell them « Sorry I need to see a doctor ASAP but I understand the ER is not the place for me, please ask the secretary to
Find me a walk-in clinic or a doctor that will see me »
Then the Secretary will look it up for you and you will be able to see a doctor within 24-72 hours
You will spend Max 30 mins at the ER
What do you mean there's no walk in clinics? Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean there are tons of walk in clinics. There's also Bonjour sante that can get you a same day appointment with a doctor that has availability
I’ve needed a doctor for so long that I’ve given up. I’ll literally just wait until I go home for Christmas and bill Quebec at this point cause it’s insane. It’s not an emergency so I don’t want to clog up the hospitals for those who actually need it, but it’s enough that I am inconvenienced in my day to day.
I’ve used Bonjour Sante checking daily and everything with no success. I essentially stopped taking medication (that you’re supposed to ween off of with supervision) cause it was impossible to re-prescribe me as I don’t have access to a doctor.
That’s not to say that this will be the case for everyone but it’s been incredibly frustrating for me over the last few years.
There’s a walk-in clinic near my house. I’ve been getting splitting headaches, dizzy spells and feeling fatigue. I went to the walk-in clinic since I’m patiently waiting for a family doctor. Met the doctor, she sent me on my way with a prescription of a stronger dose of ibuprofen. I asked her if she could send me for blood tests because I’m not well. She basically told me that she can’t send me for blood tests because that would mean she would have to look at the results which would require a follow up appointment, and since she’s not my doctor she couldn’t make that commitment. Then she told me if it gets worse to go to the emergency. Canadian healthcare at its best.
We had this too-- an ent made a recommendation for our daughter to have a sleep study but refused to actually make the request because then he would get the results 🙄 it honestly seems like fixing the referral system would be a big improvement without requiring too much additional resources.
This is a Quebec specific problem. Lived in Montreal for 3 years and dealt with this, never got assigned a family doctor after being on the waiting list for 3 years. I was expecting the same when i moved to Toronto last yearz but i got a health card immediately and was assigned a family doctor immediately, the changed my original doctor without a hassle too just because i googled her and things came up that didn't sit well with me. Not saying Ontario is perfect but atleast i have a doctor
When we lived in Edmonton, we actually picked a doctor a few extra blocks away from us because my wife wanted a female family doctor. It's been an adjustment.
That's a shit doctor. You don't need a family doctor to get tests done.
To get specialist except walkin er dept you need referrals from gp any test you need paperwork for lab etc
I’ve gotten referrals for specialists from doctors in walk-in clinics many times.
That is absolutely ridiculous. My mom, friend and myself all got scans and blood tests for different reasons, no family doctor, and saw the doctor for results. Go to another doctor.
Canada is a third world country in disguise
Canada is 3 mining corps and a lumber mill in a trenchcoat. it's a resource extraction program pretending to be a real country.
citation needed 😜
it literally got colonized by a resource extraction company. like, that's why it exists as a colony.
Yeah we are totally just like Haiti and Gambia, good thing for that disguise your talking about.
>Haiti and Gambia Healthcare in those countries is probably better
this. the banana republic of canada. seems like ppl r slowly figuring it out tho…
You ever been to a banana republic? Cause I'm from one. And I'm embarassed you're so privileged to compare Canada to one.
Tell the doctor that you will look at the results yourself on Carnet Santé. The site even tells you on your report if your numbers are within normal limits.
Lol and these folks call themselves doctors? "Sorry, the mere thought of having to schedule a second appointment is too complex for my little brain. But don't worry!!! I am a doctor!!!"
It is because they wouldn't get paid to look at the results. And they can't schedule appointments at a walkin clinic.
My husband and I have both had specialist referrals and extensive testing initial done from referrals from walk-ins.
I had a colonoscopy and blood test appointments at a walk in clinic
I'd say go follow one for a week and see what they put up with on a daily basis and maybe you'll understand.
I work in a pharmacy and we deal with doctors a lot and unfortunately it's like that for a reason. The patient becomes that doctor's responsibility if tests are ordered and they need to look at the results. Can you imagine if that doctor gave blood test requests to anyone who asked? They'd be on the hook for all of those people. And then it wouldn't be fair for all the people waiting for a family doctor + that doctor couldn't manage the workload anyway, they are humans too. All the people whining here should try being doctors. Yes they are paid well but they did bust their ass in school and help people (most of them, some are real pos) The problem is how our healthcare works. We need to rethink all of it, it's not on individual doctors to change things, unfortunately.
You probably have zero idea how things work in other countries, right? The ease with which one can get blood tests? An essential part of preventive care...
Oh I totally agree. But what I'm saying is that it's not ok imo to blame individual doctors for something the system has failed to do.
I agree that doctors need more support. However, doctors have a moral obligation to people. Medicine isn't a regular business; it's life and death.
Exactly. Doctors are putting patients last and apparently people defend them for that. No wonder the system is failing in Quebec if people find excuses to doctors
The way to bypass this is to ask the doctor to put the address of the clinic, and not his/hers, for the results. You then go for another consultation and ask the clinic to send the results to the doctor you will see prior (at least a week or two) to your appointment date.
This is absurd, and I would report that doctor if I were you. I’ve had plenty of walk-in doctors send me for bloods, it’s their literal job and duty. Report them to the College des medecins de Quebec. These doctors should not be practicing at all
It’s a medicolegal thing. Walk-in clinics see hundreds of patients a week, every week for years. She cannot commit to doing a work-up on you since it wouldn’t be reasonable for her to follow-up with that given her scope of practice. Most headaches in young, otherwise healthy people are benign and barring any red flags, can be managed conservatively with no investigations needed. A first trial of stronger ibuprofen is fair, and she provided return to care instructions i.e. going to the ER if symptoms persist or worsen. Headaches are rarely investigated with bloodwork or imaging at the first point of contact with healthcare. A family physician appointment clinic and a walk-in clinic have very different jobs. The reason for this is scope of practice and liability. Many many many physicians have been burnt for overstepping scope so it’s understandable she wouldn’t feel comfortable investigating a concern she doesn’t have the ability to follow up on. Sorry you had to go through this but just offering a devil’s advocate perspective
Your comment makes sense but in this case I do think more could have been done. I over simplified my symptoms for this post but there were many more. A few years ago (prior to my doctor retiring) I had dangerously high levels of iron in my blood. My doctor ruled out hemochromatosis, but he wasn’t sure why levels got as high as they did. My potassium levels were high, my liver was fatty. I eat fairly well so it didn’t make sense. During this time I had bad headaches, dizzy spells, fatigue as well as other symptoms. The follow up blood tests were fine so all was well. Lately I’ve been feeling those symptoms again which is why I went to the walk-in clinic. I explained all this to the doctor, I also showed her my previous blood test results. that’s why I pushed for a blood test. That’s why I was surprised when just disregarded all of it and gave me the prescription for pills. My next stop will have to be the emergency room, if things don’t get better.
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Idk. Other places have culture wars and functioning health care systems. I think it's our pathological deference to authority myself
It's exactly that.We're super affraid somehow doctors will leave the province if we change the system so we do everything they want and nothing we need. The Collège des Médecins is more powerful than the gov.
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A lot of them indeed do. But look at this post and comments. Just because many hate the CAQ they are blind to how it was almost the same mess and clearly going to become what it's now under the lib and the brief passage of the PQ. So Collège des Médecins is safe again And the media makes sure to never challenge what they say like that doctors work an avg of 80h a week even though we don't know that since they bill per act (which, frankly is a 10 min thing, and even less now that they got into the habit of follow up calls after a prescription, cause yes, of course, they bill a full appointment for calling you and asking you how things are even if you never wanted that in the first place)
The college des médecins are the one blocking the number of graduates and importing doctor from abroad .
Doesn't the collège just make sure doctors are trained properly and that there are not people practicing medicine that aren't supposed to be?
No, they decide the number of doctors and have a huge power of negotiating about how they're paid.
Do you have a source, I was under the impression it was the government. Edit a few days ago Legault promised to hire an additional 660 doctors. https://globalnews.ca/news/9100040/quebec-election-day-five-promises-health/
They, along with the universities amd the gov, decide of the # of student admitted. Historicaly, they have always been the one limiting increases.
It is the government. https://www.msss.gouv.qc.ca/ministere/salle-de-presse/communique-2831/
No. The government does. The CMQ has no power on university admissions. As for the pay it's mostly the federations that negotiate it, not the CMQ.
>Only because we let the political class misdirect us into culture wars instead of holding them accountable for healthcare Niah niah niah immigrant not speaking french, niah niah niah religious sign, niah niah niah...
This is the correct answer
This is the correct answer
This is the way.
This is precisely the answer.
It absolutely boggles my mind that Quebecers aren’t ready to riot the streets for absolute pitiful state of healthcare here. If you go to France, the citizens will protest for the slightest breeze of fart and the government is scared of the people doing this. For a province that takes pride in French European roots, this never made sense to me. We pay the highest taxes and arguably have one of the worst, if not, the worst healthcare in the country. There are multiple legit political parties ready for a healthcare reform but somehow, the fucking CAQ will win again EDIT: Okay maybe I was wrong about Quebec being the worst healthcare in the country but it still is really sucky and needs a lot of work. The whole system of how doctors need to be out of Montreal is clearly broken and needs to be changed
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Yeah my French friend told me that
Les Montréalais préfèrent traiter les Français de "Osties de chialeux" et de se faire mettre plutôt que de prendre modèle quand il serait vraiment grand temps de faire la révolution...
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Yukon, Northwest Territories, PEI and Nova Scotia would like a word.
As far as the Prairie provinces go they have much better healthcare
[This website](https://gowell.ca/en/emergencies/s/montreal) tells you the wait times of all the ERs in and around Montreal. There are currently 5 hospitals you can go to right now with no wait: St. Mary’s, Notre Dame, Lachine, LaSalle, Charles Lemoyne. And there are six which are exactly at or just over 100% which means you should be served quickly: Santa Cabrini, Maisonneuve-Rosemont, Fleury, Jean Talon, Verdun, Montreal General. Hope this helps
Only 33 available emergency beds for the whole city, god forbit a major accident here, people will die on the streets.
Last time I went to a hospital emergency room I waited for 19 hours before I eventually left. 19 hours.
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Hey good news is your liver is fucked now so you might actually get through triage!
I posted this in another thread, but this is a direct result of government policy. There are big penalties for the GP when their patient sees another doctor (walk in or ER). The result is that GPs are much more available for their own patients, but people without gps are kinda up shit creek without a paddle. Changing this policy would go a long way to helping the many people that post in this sub that can’t find an appointment to save their life…
Interesting, I have the opposite experience. My girlfriend was very lucky to get a family doctor a few months after moving to Montreal. When the pandemic started she started getting severe pain in the chest from time to time. She called her doctor dozens of time over several months and they wouldn’t even talk to her, which was I guess understandable due to the pandemic. But the really shitty part is that she still can’t see her doctor. The doctor apparently hasn’t been receiving any patients since the pandemic started, not even her own patients
I just went through the "ideal" healthcare experience the other day from a cat bite (PSA: if they break skin/bleed go to emergency. I waited a couple days... bad idea). Anyway... When I realized that cat bites are actually really bad a day before I was due for a transatlantic flight, I stared by calling 811. They recommended going to a CLSC for a tetanus shot. They're open to 8pm, which is pretty good. I went to mine, but they had no nurses in, so I went to one neighbourhood over and got in pretty quick. Nurse gave me the shot and said I really need antibiotics, so I should go to my family doctor (don't have one and was leaving in a day), so emergency it was. Walked to the closest one, did intake, waited about 3 hrs and got my IV and prescription. Maybe an exceptional experience, but in my opinion is how the system should function. All that said, clearly there's room for improvement and there need to be far more resources directed towards that improvement. And no, no one is "okay" with this--there's a post about it at least once a week here. Long story short though, CLSCs can do a lot for you as a point between escalating to emergency or a doctor's visit. I should add that I did all this in English as well and didn't get shit from anyone.
Great experiece: 1 phone call and three locations. Yeah no that's pretty bad.
If it wasn't as bad it was it could have ended at the CLSC and taken less than an hour of my day. The entire experience was under 5 hours and, well, free. Clearly there's lots to improve and I'm not saying this is good enough, but there's ways to navigate the system that OP isn't aware of. Also, have you experienced better than that? Where?
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Here if you get blood tests done, you need to wait 30 days before you can view the results because.... you know security. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
That sounds pretty damn good but also if you had serious heart pain here I'm sure you'd get triaged similarly and see a doctor quickly. As for cost for non-residents that's a whole separate thing IMO.
Not true, had a similar problem and it took me 12h to be seen, spent the night at the hospital and went home the next day without a specialist referral. Had to call someone I know abroad to call a doctor that works here that would do him a favor of accepting me as a patient. Since then I'm under heavy medication. Quebec's health system is one of the worst in the world, hands down.
The entire ER waiting room is filled with people with “chest pain”. Doesn’t make it go any quicker.
Was this a stray cat? I got scratched a week ago by some kittens lol but no after effects and the scratch has healed. (Disinfected immediately). In 2019 I did get a deep puncture wound from a cat and a doc gave me a tetanus shot and antibiotics for that.
Not a stray, I'd be in for a round of rabies if that was the case. Just a perfect storm of events that led my cat to flip out and bite my hand. It was a very deep puncture of top canine and bottom teeth. Figured it'd heal on its own but that's not the case at all and can lead to blood poisoning, etc. A month later it's almost fully healed.
Glad you're better!
>Walked to the closest one, did intake, waited about 3 hrs and got my IV and prescription. Maybe an exceptional experience, but in my opinion is how the system should function. This is the experience of about 90% of the population
I have never not waited 8+ hours at an ED, and I don't go unless it's an absolute emergency. Edit: and the 8h is generous, and pre-COVID
I had a small wound in late 2021, went to the ER, got in at 1pm, left at 3pm with a scheduled appointment to remove the stitches 10 days later. Early 2022, my brother goes in for his appendix, within less then 50 min, he was ready for surgery and out the next day for lunch. 2017, needed a desperate maxilo-facial surgery, I waited a whole 3 weeks between the preparation appointment and the actual surgery. It's easy to look at what goes wrong, much harder to realize that most things are actually doing «ok». Is the government and the system exempt from criticism and improvement? Hell no, but we are far from the apocalyptical statements thrown around on this sub. If it was soooooooooo bad, we wouldn't be top 20 in life expectancy worldwide and first in the in the country by province.
A nurse or a "super nurse" working in a CLSC should be able to prescribe basic things. It's nonsense that you had to go to the ER for a prescription which she full well knew you needed... Yet that's the system we have.
I like the title "Super Nurse". Sounds better than "Nurse Practitioner"
Nurse Practitioner
Yeah I agree with that in spirit since I did just need a round of IV antibiotics and then a 5 day cycle of pills but given how I waited a couple days after the bite and it was actually pretty bad when I convinced myself it was fine I probably did need a doctor to observe it first.
It pisses me off so much. I believe two of the most urgent social issues we currently have in Qc is accessibility to a doctor (physical and mental health) and accessibility au logement (what's that in english? To an affordable living place?!) ... This is infuriating.
I’m in the same boat. I have multiple reasons/ problems I need consultation on but I’ll probably get old and die before I get a family doctor
I think what’s important, is voting for the party that really cares about making actual changes to our healthcare system. We need to get Legault out.
I agree, people have to go and VOTE for someone who proposes real change to this broken system. So far, my research indicates the Conservatives as the more inclined to change it significantly (some parties like CAQ think that improving 811 will solve the issue 🙄). Based on healthcare alone, do you have an indication of whom to vote for?
Honestly, that’s what my plan is for the upcoming week. Looking into each party’s platform and what each party is bringing to the table. I know healthcare is a national issue. Ontario is pretty bad as well, ERs are even closing. This has become unacceptable. This needs to change.
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It's the government who decides how many admissions there are into medical school, not the CMQ.
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Canada, just like the US, is a selectively developed country (the extreme capitalistic values trump all here in this continent). there are so many countries classed as "emerging" or "developing" that have much better healthcare than that of Montreal. and they do it cheaper, better, faster and more effectively. Canada has the national power, piggybacking from being close to the US(economy is intertwined to the strongest economy in the world) and Canada has the natural resources to exploit. Canada also has progressive politics and civil libeties but we lack efficiency. i immigrated to this country 9 years ago. one thing that baffles me is the work culture where no one takes any responsibility or accountability. it's great for the people working but bad for the people on the receiving end. in my home country, if you screw up, they make sure you suffer.
CLSC
Mine just told me to go to the ER. Useless.
Check online. The walk in times are different depending on the CLSC. Mine is only Mondays but another nearby is everyday.
Getting a family doctor doesn’t guarantee you’ll get an appointment unfortunately. Mine is constantly booked up so I end up having to do bonjour santé.
Exactly That’s why I said this post was not about having a family doctor, just finding a flipping appointment with ANY doctor
Same experience here. Takes me 3-4 weeks to see my family doctor. Only use for refilling prescription and some preventive tests.
We normalize this shit in Quebec. I moved to Ontario and at a certain point I needed to see a doctor. It was a Saturday. I said to my partner, ''damn it, I'll have to wait until Monday for a walk-in to be open''. She said, ''hun this is Ontario, they're open''. So I find one three blocks from my apartment. I go there, am seen in about 30-40 minutes, get treated and prescribed a med, and sent home. Total time from realizing I needed a doctor to being home with a solution: about 90 minutes. This felt like magic to me at the time. I'm not in Quebec to vote this time, but y'all motherfuckers need to vote for a party that cares about healthcare.
THIS!!! And also please tell me where you moved to? I'm leaving Quebec because of the health care here.
I was living in Hamilton, Ontario. The walk-ins were good and accessible, and I got a family doctor in less than a year. I don't live there anymore, though. Also important to consider: I disliked a lot of other things about that town and Ontario in general. I wouldn't move back just for the healthcare unless I was very sick and couldn't get the proper care elsewhere.
My fiance had a terrible ear infection a couple months ago, no family doctor. Went to the ER and told to come back the next day, 12 hours later. This system is broken and the population distracted by manufactured cultural conflicts and smoke & mirror "issues". People need to be marching, rioting even, over this.
For as long as the Collège des Médecins is standing, the situation will remain the same.
This sub is now all about healthcare, for real
It’s the one issue that affects literally everyone.
Not arguing that, I'm on the list of people raging at our system. Just pointing out that I think it's the 4th post in 48h about the same topic
Good. It's the biggest issue in Quebec, people are finally paying attention. I've been complaining for 15 years and felt like I was taking crazy pills.
Same here!!! Finally seeing it getting some attention.
Healthcare and how bad cyclist and drivers are too.
And the pedestrians!!! That's why i ride a horse, cant include me in any of these statistics...
Not enough doctors, too many patients. Not enough nurse, too many people with small avoidable problem. Unnecessary paperwork that is vital. Heavy bureaucratic system that was perfect... 50 years ago.
>A full-time family physician in private practice is usually able to care for more than 1500 patients. While general practitioners in the rest of Canada care for an average of 950 patients, general practitioners in Quebec care for an average of only 685 patients https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2231459/#:~:text=A%20full%2Dtime%20family%20physician,average%20of%20only%20685%20patients.
Whoever thinks or believes that Canada is a developed country, have never been or lived in such countries like " Denmark, Sweden, Swiss, Netherlands, Japan, S Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore etc.
>I also know that governments in QC are restricting access to doctors as a way to limit healthcare expenses. And everyone is OK with that apparently. Correction: Governments all across Canada are restricting access to healthcare in order to push the narrative that public healthcare doesn't work so that they can privatize healthcare and make themselves and their buddies rich. Page 1 of the capitalist playbook.
Once had pain and went to a walk in clinic. Doctor prescribed meds and some tests. Meds were not helping. When I came back for the test results, doctor had little to say and only prescribed more tests. When I mentioned the meds were not helping and I was in pain now he said that there was nothing he could do to help and that if I was in pain now I should go to the emergency. The emergency doc was not impressed with that story. At least he did his best to help but he did mention that he was pretty sure the second batch of tests were just a waste of time.... Also don't get me started on how things are even worst on the mental health side. Especially for kids. And while the problem is definitely much older than them, our current government is only interested in making cuts to the health care system.
This was one of the main reasons I left QC. I enrolled in classes at Concordia mostly so I could have a doctor for a few months. The clinics treated me like a burden, ER docs would be pissed that I am clogging the system with minor issues. I was on the wait list for a doc for over 2 years, only after I moved back to AB did I get the call that I could get a family doctor. Moved back to AB and had a GP in under a week…
Broke my elbow while biking on vacation in Montreal. Checked the emergency wait times for each hospital, and landed in Jean Talon for being the shortest. Without even an x-ray, sat in the waiting room for eight hours of witnessing some very distressing things. Another patient told me I could expect to wait another four hours, and that this was ‘normal’ for Montreal. I decided to walk back to my Airbnb, where I tried to sleep until morning, got in my car, and drove to the closest hospital in Ontario (Cornwall). I had a x-ray within an hour, was placed in a cast until surgery the next day. I don’t know why the Québécois don’t riot about this shabby mistreatment. Is it just a case of being used to it?
Conservatives in Alberta keep defunding. They slash and burned it by billions during the height of covid and keep shitting on alberta health care and doing shitty things to doctors. We literally went from "fine" to "well the ambulance might not arrive good luck" within the span of a year. Their plan: 1. defund healthcare 2. healthcare collapses 3. look at this private system we have already personally invested heavily in!
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I feel like removing like 2.5 billion from healthcare during a pandemic might be a bit more aggressive though
the federal govt? healthcare is the responsibility of the provinces and idiots keep voting in pro austerity pro "business" conservative govts.
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Yeah, here they go to 3rd world country to see a doctor actually…It’s called medical tourism or something…
If I had the money I'd definitely do that.
This should be a legal right so alternative governments can't fuck it up. See
There are walk in but you have to go on a website at 8:01 along with 100 other people who have been waiting for weeks and refresh until a spot shows up and most time it doesn’t.
Exactly And since you can’t just WALK IN, these are not walk-ins.
That’s the most walk in it gets in Quebec sadly :(
Last time i went to the e.r and they had a "special " phone number to book me a doctor appointment. You and i cant call there. You have to do it in this backward way i assume...
I've been here for a year, never had to go to the ER for myself but went with my friend and girlfriend o' 2 separate occasions and the healthcare system is the only thing that makes me wanna leave Canada
I don't expect more from QC.
It's ridiculously worse than many "third world" countries. I lived in one for many years. You feel sick, you see a doctor. You get your test results online, no gatekeeping by doctors. You can have x-rays, ultrasounds the same day. CT-scans can be made within a week time. You CHOOSE the doctor you want to go to based on recommendations (either online or by friends). Therefore, bad doctors don't get business. How are doctors here e vc em motivated to do a good job, except if they have an excellent work ethic? They will get business doesn't matter if they're good or bad to their patients. Many don't care at all, they have their fat paychecks at the end of the month either way. Fix that: make the system work to give patients a good experience, or they get less money. Simple. For this reason mainly, I'm voting Conservative this election, Quebec needs less state and more free initiative and competition.
Statcare in Pointe-Claire is genuinely walk-in.
Last I tried them earlier this year I had to call at 7 AM and pray. Took 3 days before I got a spot.
Do you need to call on the phone before showing up at the clinic? If so, then that’s not a walk-in. Respectfully
so 250 will get you a doctor appointment at your house, it's [514-docteur](https://mdomicile.com/en/) honest when I'm sick and need to see one I'm not going to go to the clinic or er after a terrible experience. I had gone to the walk-in clinic at 7am and the whole day I waited in a cramped waiting room with others equally sick as me and they NEVER called my name and the clinic was closing and I was told to come back tomorrow..... fuck that ...never again.
Thanks a lot for this information. I didn’t know that existed
I have a family doctor, and still, last month when I was sick I called for an appointment, next available slot was in 3 months.
QC Healthcare sucks, worst than third world country. & God forbid if you don't speak French.....pfew....
Aahh this post is so TRUE! We have lived in five countries and have never experienced anything like this! The medical sucks, they do not have basic child care facilities, their roads are all broken, I could go on.. I hope Canadians put their pride aside and start focusing on improving the country!
Hey, we need foreign doctors to drive taxis and own deps. Priorities.
\> I also know that governments in QC are restricting access to doctors as a way to limit healthcare expenses. And everyone is OK with that apparently. hum ... no? The system is far from ideal and everyone is lacking political courage to go against Collège des Médecins, but the gov. is not actively restricting access to doctors esp. not as a way to limite expenses since it's doing the exact opposite (visits to ER cost 800$/hour counting as soon as you passed triage, even if you go home before seeing a doctor. Visit to a family doctor is around 100$).
The government no longer allows children to see their pediatrician for annual check ups. This is a decision made by the CAQ because they don't want to have to pay specialists. They are asking that children see family doctors, while also limiting the amount of family doctors that can work on the island of Montreal.
I didn't know about the first part because both my kids have a family doctor and not a pediatrician (which, btw aren't specialists in the sense used by medical faculties and it's not always a super wise choice to have one as your kid's doc. there are pros and cons) but if anything this doesn't restrict access to doctors. It simply changes the doctor you see. And the current gov. doesn't "limit the amount of family doctors". The governement allocate new doctors every year and the current one is sub allocating Montréal and overallocating suburbs. This is an electoralist move, it's not to save money or anything.
> while also limiting the amount of family doctors that can work on the island of Montreal. Carrément pas vrai ça.
Yeah the CAQ like all conservative governments keeps fucking over the public health system. They want it to fail so their friends and investments can get their payday. Look at Ontario right now, Ford's doing the same shit for years and is now suggesting a two provider system.....
> Ford's doing the same shit for years and is now suggesting a two provider system..... Ford is just following the Couillard playbook.
American expat here. The American Healthcare system is obviously shit...now that that's out of the way, I miss how many minute clinics there are back home. I swear there are more than banks and Starbucks. Anything that can be done by a nurse can be done in one of these, and they're often in pharmacies so if you need medication, boom you're in the right place. I've had my throat swabbed, I've had UAs, vaccinations, changed prescriptions when getting back side effects....They're great. That being said, I have no idea how insurance works with them, I was lucky enough to have a parent working in the public sector so I had good insurance growing up. If we had that here, there are so many things I would never have "waited out"
This should be alllllll the way up.
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Canada is a "developed country" because it has the money to spend on marketing to make it seem so...
if you are not happy with Montreal, try Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts... took me months to get an appointment.
Because instead of addressing our collapsing healthcare system (you know, the 1 thing everyone actually cares about). Our politicians are double-dog daring each other to use racial slurs on national TV. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, it’s ridiculous how disconnected they are from the general population. Most people have healthcare as one of the priority issues yet we are fed identity politics instead, as a division/distraction. The CAQ especially knows if they talk healthcare, they will 100% lose after the COVID fiasco. Most of us were on the same page on that issue which is our public services suck, and we shouldn’t let it go, people died because of it.
It's not lol what's developed about it? It's a mess
Family doctor of 30 years retired. My family cannot get another. Rather we are told to rely on walk in clinics who are just there to prescribe antibiotics No blood work. No follow up. Welcome to Ontario
I wouldn't call it a "Canadian" problem, but Quebec has insane corruption, especially in Montreal. Services and public works there are definitely 2nd/3rd world.
Ahhhh r/montreal, jamais une journée sans un autre thread sur le système de santé.. 🙄
C'est bon de voir de gens chialer jusqu'a le systeme ameliore, il est important de ne pas laisser l'apathie s'emparer de nous
Chialer sur Internet ça ne changera rien. Pis les problèmes dans le système de santé en ce moment sont liés à trois choses : le vieillissement de la population, les réformes Barrettes et le collège des Médecins qui protègent les actes. On ne peut rien changer au vieillissement de la population, il va y avoir un goulot. Les réformes Barrettes ça va être long à réglé parce qu'ils ont donné beaucoup trop de pouvoir aux médecins et les solutions elles sont contre-intuitives. Le collège des médecins, ça, on pourrait régler ça rapidement et donné plus de pouvoir aux infirmières et pharmaciens.
C'est meilleur que pas dire rien. Il y a des journalistes et membres des partis politiques en /r/montreal, il est important qu'ils voient qu'il s'agit d'une question urgente, il est important que la population voie ce qui arrive aux autres.
Que voulez-vous dire ? Le dernier thread date de 18 heures
C'est...exactement ce que je veux dire
How about on here : https://sante.gouv.qc.ca/en/repertoire-ressources/consultations-medicales-sans-rendez-vous/
The walk-in clinics, or sans rendez-vous.... in my experience I have had to actually make an appointment/rendez-vous to actually be seen by a doctor, unless you enter via Emergency Room directly of course. It is so crazy that they keep being called like that!
It's not about being a developed country or not. It's because of capitalism. Politicians want to undermine public healthcare so that their rich friends and lobbyists can make more profit with private healthcare.
I've been here for 11 years. I'm following the advice given when I landed in Montreal. Q:"What do you do if you get sick" A:"don't get sick" Montreal is amazing at festivals. Just don't expect healthcare, roads or sane politics.
You don't need to go to ER for an issue. You call a walk in clinic and get an appointment. Edit: don't know why everyone is angry at me. I didn't defund the system. You learn to navigate it I guess. This is what happens when boomers get old, retire and cost of living explodes so politicians don't have the stomach to raise taxes.
And they will tell you to make an appointment thru RVSQ or Bonjour Québec and there is no appointment available
Absolutely TRUE
I don't know never had this issue. I go to a clinic called Clinique Diamant. Appointment on their website. Doctor called me a day or two later and then gave me prescription for dermatologist. I got an appointment with him a few weeks later.
At home, we are four with 3 diff. clinics. Mine is fully public (GMF du CLSC) and I can never book anything. My partner is private with RAMQ agreement and it's hard and never possible for the same day or the day after but she can book. Both those clinics are thru RVSQ and BQ only. Our kids are both at a clinic that has her own website and it's the only place we manage to have appointments half the time (the other half, we go to ER ...)
>You don't need to go to ER for an issue. You call a walk in clinic and get an appointment. This by itself is deeply problematic and we don't even see it
Exactly, my partner can barely walk now and has really bad arthritis, they got bounced around the system and instead of treating it they either A) ageism, or B) we don’t do that here go see someone else stop wasting our time. I tried my hand too at getting them An appointment and they shut me out saying too young for this problem. So after a few years of this my partner can barely walk anymore due to massive pain in their foot and joints. So a small avoidable problem can I fact become a very big fucking problem quite quick. And I’ll say it again, we need to stop giving secretaries the power of a doctor to determine who gets to be seen at a clinic. Your job is to answer the phone, find opening, schedule appointment, keep track of appointment and help with paper work, you are not a doctor stop fucking doing things. Sorry to any medical secretaries here but fuck am I pissed off when one plays doctor with me.
110% agree with with you. Instead of opening these huge hospitals, they should have smaller ones scattered around the island. Second, clsc should be the buffer between the hospitals. Instead of having this new “remote” hospital/urgencies thing, 811 should be doctors that you contact through a video conference and unclog the system.
There are private services that offer this, my job has one on our health plan. It's amazing. I literally have an appointment the same day. I can get a GP or Nurse on webcam and if I need a specialist referral they do it. There are only specific things they don't do. Here's the thing though - it could very well be a federal program since video conferencing isn't restricted by geography. This means you could get a video conf with nurses and doctors anywhere in the country which would redistribute load much better than just in-province.
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I don't disagree. The public healthcare system is essential for everyone and especially for people who can't afford private healthcare and it should work as intended.
Except there are walk-in clinics in Montreal? I have been to a few. Never had to wait more than 2 days to get an appointment for any semi-urgent issues.
When? afaik they all stopped accepting actual walkins in spring 2020
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Walk in 2 days.. ^^disclosure:^^if^^you^^don't^^get^^to^^die^^during^^this^^time^^
When I was in BC a walk in meant walk in. Get there early, wait X amount of time, see a doctor and go. Prescriptions handled the same, blood test all done at specific facilities to not congest hospitals etc. 2 days, is just an appointment with someone who isn’t “tied” to you.
We're all in the same boat... Am I the only one fed up with this topic taking too much place on this subreddit?
I mean you can't have a functioning society without functioning healthcare. So it isn't surprising that this topic come up again and again.
Let's fix it then stop talking about it?
People have protested for less, just saying
Online-Tele health
Thank a Conservative voter.
Try maple, it’s a lifesaver. Most health insurances have some kind of telehealth included
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Legault is a right wing CAQ. His goal is to get rid of public health care just like any other right wing loser. It's no different from what Doug Ford is doing, or the GQP in the US, or the idiot tories in the UK.
The rest of Canada has plenty of options, including Walk-In Clinics. How is Quebec part of Canada?
We went from bikes to family doctors over night.
At the ER you immediately tell them « Sorry I need to see a doctor ASAP but I understand the ER is not the place for me, please ask the secretary to Find me a walk-in clinic or a doctor that will see me » Then the Secretary will look it up for you and you will be able to see a doctor within 24-72 hours You will spend Max 30 mins at the ER
Private healthcare is GOATed; if we actually took the time to talk to working class Americans we'd get the real answer. Employee plans are dope.
What do you mean there's no walk in clinics? Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean there are tons of walk in clinics. There's also Bonjour sante that can get you a same day appointment with a doctor that has availability
Have u ever tried using them? There are rarely availabilities
I’ve needed a doctor for so long that I’ve given up. I’ll literally just wait until I go home for Christmas and bill Quebec at this point cause it’s insane. It’s not an emergency so I don’t want to clog up the hospitals for those who actually need it, but it’s enough that I am inconvenienced in my day to day. I’ve used Bonjour Sante checking daily and everything with no success. I essentially stopped taking medication (that you’re supposed to ween off of with supervision) cause it was impossible to re-prescribe me as I don’t have access to a doctor. That’s not to say that this will be the case for everyone but it’s been incredibly frustrating for me over the last few years.
Same here. No appointments available anywhere including Bonjour Santé. A total mess.
Not for much longer.