The decision not to renew an agreement that saw the private Rockland MD clinic perform 1,500 operations a year for the Sacre Coeur Hospital could inconvenience Quebec medical patients, according to the opposition CAQ party.

Liberal Health Minister Gaetan Barrette told a parliamentary commission Thursday that he had no intention of renewing the agreement, which expires on September 4, 2014.

Barrette said that the cost per surgery is more expensive at the Rockland MD clinic than within the public network; however CAQ MNA Eric Caire presented a study claiming the opposite.

Caire also brandished a letter from a top administrator at the Sacre Coeur demanding that that deal be renewed because the hospital lacks the resources to handle the added load.

However Barrette said that the Fleury and Jean Talon hospitals would be able to help pick up the slack.

The health ministry paid $18 million to the clinic between 2008 and 2013 to perform over 8,000 operations.