Another blow to health care in Quebec
Re: “JGH told to turn away patients from off-island” (Gazette, Feb. 8)
Years ago, the PQ made a total mess of the medical profession by doing an ill-planned reform that saw hundreds of nurses leave the medical profession, greatly affecting the needs of the patients. It took years for the medical profession to recover from the PQ’s action.
Patients were the ones who suffered.
Now Premier Pauline Marois’s government is at it again with the edict to Montreal’s finest hospitals to reject patients not living on the island of Montreal.
How does she think these patients will feel in knowing that their lives could be cut short because of such a narrow-minded idea? Is this part of the government’s assisted-death initiative?
People outside Montreal are not second-class citizens. We pay the same tax rate as the people living in Montreal. One cannot duplicate instantly outside of Montreal some of the top-notch medical expertise acquired by some Montreal hospitals.
With the loss of many patients, what are all the surplus doctors going to do? Leave the province of Quebec for a chance to continue working in cutting-edge hospitals. How long will it take this time to replace those lost skills? Roger Demers
Dunham
The more outlying hospitals (on and off island) need to be prepared for the influx of patients being asked not to use the “downtown” hospitals.
With the help of our donors and the Lakeshore General Hospital Foundation, we have been planning for the introduction of a new interventional radiology suite, approval for which was recently denied by the health authority.
Where will these patients be going for their procedures? Downtown.
With the support of our community, the staff of Lakeshore General are ready to welcome these patients with open arms. but this will be hard to do with our arms tied behind our backs.
Francesco Ramadori, MDCM
St-Laurent