Over 8,000 sign petition for community health services in the coaticook MRC

Apetition for the improvement of community health services in the Coaticook MRC was delivered to the office of MNA for St-françois, Geneviève Hébert last week.

In four months, more than 8,000 people, or more than 42 per cent of the population of the Coaticook MRC, exercised their right to sign the petition since its official launch on May 17, 2019, the day of citizen mobilization for the future of health care in the Coaticook MRC.

"I would like to thank all the signatories and volunteers involved in signing petitions," commented Claude Laurence, involved in preparing the petition.

"These signatures demonstrate the unprecedented mobilization and importance that the population attaches to the future of health care and the recruitment of physicians in the Coaticook MRC," she added. "I believe that Ms. Hébert must take note of this unprecedented mobilization. She must take concrete and immediate action to resolve the situation, as she promised during its election and during the election campaign."

In May 2018, the Clinic announced that nearly 7,000 patients in the Coaticook MRC would be without a family doctor by 2020 following the retirement or change in practice of some doctors.

Since May 2018, the clinic has been working on various projects to recruit new family physicians and specialized nurse practitioners.

The Coaticook Medical Clinic is the only family medicine clinic in Coaticook's local service network (RLS). More than 12,500 patients are enrolled and the health centre has adopted the family medicine group (GMF) approach. The area to be covered is 1339 km for the clientele requiring home care. The GMF physicians also collaborate on duties in the emergency room or in the follow-up of long-term care clients at the Centre hospitalier de la Mrc-de-coaticook.