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Why is it so hard to find a family doctor in Quebec?

Posted By: Tommy Schnurmacher · 11/16/2012 6:54:00 AM

It's criminal how hard it is to find a family doctor in Montreal. How did it come to this? Where are all the physicians? And what can we do about it? 

We're going to get to the bottom of this crisis, and I'll have the help of the City's top medical professionals: CJAD Medical Expert Dr. Mitch Shulman; Dr. Paul Saba of the Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice, and Dr. Mark Roper, Head of the Montreal Regional Department of General Medicine (DRMG).

We also want to know what YOU'VE been going through in trying to find a doctor - tell us your story by leaving a comment.

UPDATE:

Thanks to everyone for listening, and especially to our panel of doctors - who provided this handy  GUICHET D'ACCÈS chart for finding family doctors in and around Montreal (or to at least get on a waiting list):

CSSS

COORDONNÉES DU guichet d'accès (GACO)*

CSSS Cavendish: 

514 484-7878

CSSS d'Ahuntsic et Montréal-Nord: 

514 384-2000, poste 3508 

CSSS de Bordeaux-Cartierville-Saint-Laurent: 

514 331-5311

CSSS de Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle: 

514 639-0650

CSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île: 

514 626-2572, poste 5235

CSSS de la Montagne: 

514 731-8531 poste 5208

CSSS de la Pointe-de-l'Île: 

514 356-2572, poste 3612

CSSS de Saint-Léonard et de Saint-Michel: 

514 722-3000, poste 1328

CSSS du Coeur-de-l'Île: 

514 376-4141, poste 1823

CSSS du Sud-Ouest-Verdun: 

514 766-0546, poste 2234

CSSS Jeanne-Mance: 

514 527-2361, poste 3333

CSSS Lucille-Teasdale: 

514 524-3544, poste 21402

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  1. Paul posted on 11/16/2012 12:58 PM
    This answer is simple. Healthcare is managed by the government. Since when has government managed anything efficiently?

    The solution is equally simple. Outsource healthcare to private firms funded by tax dollars. You still get to keep universal healthcare but now you can let market forces and competition improve efficiencies.
  2. Julian Arango posted on 11/18/2012 03:21 PM
    ...in the meantime, hundreds of immigrant skillful medical doctors having to earn our living by doing something different from what we were doing before coming to Canada, just because the establishment does not want to share the 'big cake' and makes it so freaking difficult for us to get into the system....
    1. Rudolph S posted on 11/22/2012 09:26 AM
      @Julian Arango yeah...but we have the best educated MD and Phd taxi drivers in Montreal....
      Quebec for example is know for its excellent trainig schoools for Nurses, however once they graduate, the government treats them like s......., European Hospitals (especially in Countries where french is an official language) are aware of this and are actively recruiting Quebec Nurses and offer them the kind of working conditions they deserve. Also go to Ontario or even US medical offices and look at all the McGill Diplomas on the walls, these doctors have studied and graduated in Quebec and left while the ink on the diploma was still drying...wonder why...
  3. Lili Yesovitch posted on 11/18/2012 04:50 PM
    Allow doctors to work where they want....supply and demand....Medical clinics are businesses like anything else. Let family doctors open clinics and service the public wherever they want. Specialists jobs are much more complicated because these doctors needs hospital affiliations but if we just hire the doctors and let operating rooms run at leat 12 hours per day we will already increase availability.
    Really, it all boils down to budget. We seem to have plenty of money for bureaucrats and not enough for medical practitioners, both doctors and nurses. We as citizens should be out in the street banging on pots and pans insisting on the gov't using our medicare dollars for medicine.....not bureaucrats.
  4. Tommy posted on 11/20/2012 07:53 PM
    There are enough Family Docs out there, but they are not doing what they should be doing.
    Many work in walk in clinics or ER's where they can earn 2-3 times what a GP who has a practice earns and without overhead. Why ? Listen to this comment " It's too much work, too much responsibility and it doesn't pay enough" Why did they then go into medicine?

    When the fee schedule includes a premium for every day a GP works more than 180 days, it shows how wide spread the lack of work ethic there is among family docs in this province
  5. Dawn posted on 11/27/2012 06:39 PM
    Been with the same GP for about 8 years on the West Island. Been calling for 6 months and can't even get on the waiting list for an appointment! Why am I even paying taxes? No doctor. Roads either swallow you up or fall or your head. The government can't manage a thing.

    Have seriously thought about making a video about living in Quebec. No doctors, deadly roads, buildings fall on you, French language shoved down your throat, half our mayors are corrupt, Mafia running the province, and on top of that, no hockey!
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