Many minor medical issues don't require a doctor, and that's the main idea behind the SABSA clinic in Quebec City, where nurses run the show and solve many patients' problems before they end up at overcrowded hospital ERs.
The clinic has a nurse practitioner, who can prescribe antibiotics and order tests as well as carry out the duties of a nurse, a coordinator, a receptionist and a case worker.
They can take care of things such as “colds, everything like pneumonias, earaches, kids with problems, [and vaccinating] babies,” explained Maureen Guthrie, a nurse at the clinic.
It has a yearly budget of $200,000, most of which is now funded by the nurses' union. PQ leadership candidate Bernard Drainville wants clinics run by nurses set up as pilot projects all over Quebec and paid for by taxpayers, an endeavour he says would cost $15.3 million annually.
“Seventeen clinics in every region of Quebec for a cost that is very reasonable, $2 per Quebecer per year,” said Drainville.
A quarter of Quebecers don't have a family doctor and crowded ERs, he says, prove the medical system the way it is now just isn't working.
“A nurses' clinic works, it works very well you don't wait very long you have ready access to a health professional who will 9 out of 10 cases answer your needs,” he said, adding that CLSCs and hospitals don't provide quick healing like nurses can.
At the SABSA clinic, Guthrie volunteers seven to 10 hours a week. She says paying the nurse practitioner is more important than paying her.
“You know you're doing something that's helping out and we know the health system is pretty well on the fritz,” she said.
The Liberals promised more nurse practitioners in last year's election campaign, but the government says it can’t accelerate their training because the way their training is set up doesn't take into account the demand for their services.
The government is now focusing on passing more major reforms, starting Tuesday with hearings into Bill 20, a bill that would force doctors to see more patients.
