Montreal doctors going private, leaving patients scrambling

“It’s really frustrating. As somebody who just wants basic healthcare I just want a doctor,” said Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) resident Ma’ayan Shpayer.

“No notice and then when I went onto click santé it just said that I have no doctor,” said Montrealer Jean-Francois Gravel.

Montrealers are calling out for help as many are left scrambling without a family doctor.

Some physicians are moving over to private healthcare – forcing their patients back onto the government-run waitlist for a public family physician.

After waiting for nearly three years to get a doctor, Jean-Francois Gravel finally got one

At his next visit he was informed that he had a new doctor – and the next – there was a different one, once again.

Four years later that same doctor went private without notice.

“Once you have a doctor and you think you’re in the clear, once that doctor retires or goes private you automatically just get kicked out and you have to go back on the list and sign up again and you basically have to go back on the line. Which is not right. If you already waited then you shouldn’t have to wait again,” said Gravel.

“The only solution is to have some degree of redundancy in the workforce so when someone quits, retires, gets sick goes on mat leave you’re not left scrambling the problem now is there are no replacements,” said cardiologist and epidemiologist Dr. Christopher Labos.

Ma’ayan shpayer has type one diabetes and waited for a family doctor for nearly 5 years before getting a call in February – months later in may her doctor went private.

She was given two weeks notice.

“If I want to just renew a prescription if I have something wrong and I don’t want to go to the emergency and I dont wanna use those resources because it’s not an emergency,” said Shpayer.

At six months pregnant Siobhan Martel was informed that her general practitioner was going private.

She was given two months notice.

“I had some health concerns prior to becoming pregnant because I had Covid in 2020 and that left me with some issues with my lungs that are not entirely resolved,” said Martel. “And now anything related to birth control is sorta up to chance because my OBGYN gave me a prescription for a birth control pill for a year and then it’s have fun!

“I think what you’re seeing is a consequence of a lot of different issues but one of the big ones is the pandemic, the pandemic really broke a lot of people and that’s why you’re seeing more people transitioning into the private sector and not being a part of RAMQ anymore,” said Labos.