MUHC will no longer conduct Pap smears

Family doctors are being told that they can no longer refer patients in need of Pap smears to the McGill University Health Centre as the MUHC redirects its mission increasingly from primary care toward specialized medicine.

The MUHC has also decided against routine screening for sexually transmitted infections, or STIs.

A Montreal GP contacted The Gazette after receiving a form letter from the MUHC informing him that he could not refer a patient for a Pap smear to screen for pre-cancerous cells in the cervix.

In September 2013, the same physician said he was faxed a form letter advising him he could no longer refer patients for colonoscopies.

The doctor, who agreed to be interviewed on condition that his name not be published, said the MUHC policy is unacceptable and unfair to patients.

The MUHC decision stems from the hospital network’s plans — imposed by the Quebec Health Department — to off-load more front-line services to the community.

“The MUHC gynecology clinic cannot receive patients — for routine, primary care screenings such as Pap smears and sexuallytransmitted infection screening — who are considered low-risk,” Dr. Srinivasan Krishnamurthy, director of gynecology at the MUHC, said in email to The Gazette on Wednesday.

“The MUHC encourages women to undergo routine screening with their family physician or at other primary-care clinics, such as walk-in clinics close to their locale.”

For several years now, the MUHC has been recommending alternative options to doctors who refer patients to the MUHC for routine screening.”

Krishnamurthy appeared to attribute the “divestment” of MUHC services — as the policy has been described — to provincial government policy.

“The MUHC has a tertiary and quaternary care mandate, as defined by the ministry of health and the Agence (de santé de Montréal),” he added.

“It is vital that our limited resources continue to be channelled towards the patients that most need these services. All patients requiring treatment for gynecological problems or care of a more complex nature continue to be referred to the MUHC gynecology clinic,” he continued.

Meanwhile, the MUHC has decided that its centre for reproductive medicine, located at the Royal Victoria Hospital, will be moved to a building close to the $1.3-billion superhospital under construction in Notre-Damede-Grâce.

The MUHC will also establish an eye centre near the superhospital “to enhance our ophthalmology academic program.”

Initially, ophthalmology was one of the medical services that was going to be offloaded.

Normand Rinfret, executive director of the MUHC, said the MUHC will establish 15 dialysis chairs “on a temporary basis in a location to be determined between the Royal Victoria Hospital and the Lachine Hospital.”

The MUHC had been hoping for 20 dialysis chairs, but managed to secure funding for 15.

Dialysis is one of the services that is being partially offloaded.