West Island clinic forced to cut hours
Medistat imposes Sunday closures as it copes with budget cuts, short-staffing
In an unusual move, Medistat Clinic will be closed Sunday.
It’s the beginning of many service reductions expected at the West Island walk-in clinic that serves 32,000 patients, its administrators warn.
As of April 1, the clinic’s funding for the walk-in portion of its services will be cut, leaving it with a shortfall of $250,000. The budget paid for human resources, particularly support staff such as nurses.
The Sunday closing reflects the clinic’s inability to make ends meet given its resources, officials said.
“Typically, we would have been open, but we already lost a nurse (in anticipation of the cuts) and we’re short-staffed,” said Dr. Orly Hermon, one of the directors at Medistat.
“We hope it’s short term and we can get back to our regular operating hours.”
Medistat’s emergency walkin clinic serves 16,000 patients, including 11,000 people who are not registered with a doctor. It has been open seven days a week, including holidays.
Hermon said she is worried about Medistat users who do not have a family physician. If the clinic is forced to reduce hours or restrict services only to registered patients, she said, “where will they go?”
Early in March, the eight doctors running Medistat sent Health Minister Gaétan Barrette a letter asking for help and warning cuts would shrink its opening hours and limit patients’ access to local emergency medical services.
The doctors say their facility is being sacrificed as “collateral damage” in the face of Barrette’s superclinic reforms. It cannot expand to become a super clinic because of hiring restrictions on doctors in the area. As a consequence, the clinic’s walk-in portion of the funding is being eliminated.
The letter noted the clinic has been providing quality medical care to a growing population, serving the communities of Pierrefonds, Roxboro, Île-Bizard, Kirkland and Dollard-des- Ormeaux.
Located in the northern part of Pierrefonds, Medistat has provided walk-in services as part of the network of clinics (cliniques réseau) since 2007.
These network clinics were created to improve access to medical services and reduce the number of visits to hospital emergency departments. Most accept patients without an appointment seven days a week, including holidays, with on-site lab and radiology services.
Medistat is the only such clinic in the northern part of the West Island.
Hermon said the clinic is looking to cut corners and save money by hiring nursing assistants, who do not have the same knowledge and education as nurse practitioners.
Nonetheless, keeping the clinic open seven days a week without the current funding would be a strain on the clinic’s finances and resources, she said.
“We may have to close the walkin (to non-registered clients),” Hermon said. “We don’t want to punish patients — but we have to keep it open for our own patients.”
Barrette told the Montreal Gazette in an earlier interview that he would examine the Medistat case. During the 2014 election campaign, the Quebec Liberal Party promised to open 50 super clinics by 2018.
“So far, we’ve heard nothing from Dr. Barrette,” Hermon said, or from officials at the CIUSSS, the Montreal West Island Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre facilities.
“Patients, though, have been surprised and angry and shocked. They’re asking us, what can they do?”
CIUSSS director Benoît Morin did not return calls Thursday.
Catherine W. Audet, press attaché for Barrette, said Friday that the Medistat file is still under consideration.
Extra: Super clinics and their sideeffects. Pages A10-11