Doctors expect that people needing colonoscopies and similar procedures will face delays in the new year after private clinics shut down.
On Monday CTV reported that three private clinics will close at year's end, and a fourth confirmed on Tuesday that it would close as well.
The reason: a provincial ban on doctors charging patients for medical procedures.
Dr. Anand Sahai, chief of gastroenterology at the CHUM hospital group also works at Clinique 1037.
He said patients come there, and are willing to pay the costs for access to privately-owned equipment, because the waiting list to be treated in a hospital can be lengthy.
"I would say at least once a month we find a cancer in someone who could not get into the public system in a timely fashion," said Dr. Sahai.
But come the end of the year Clinique 1037 will shut down, sending thousands of patients onto hospital waiting lists.
Dr. Sahai doesn't know how that will work.
"[Hospitals are] constantly over budget, there's a bit of a shortage of nursing staff as well, so I don't see how we're going to be able to open new rooms, or increase our procedure load," said Dr. Sahai.
Health Minister Gaetan Barrette announced in September that doctors' fees for everything from eye drops to instruments and drugs would have to end.
Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott took some credit, saying the move came at the urging of the federal government which is pressuring provinces to cover the cost of all medically necessary procedures in hospitals and clinics.
Medical specialists say that plan doesn't allow for doctors who have purchased their own equipment to be compensated but Barrette countered there is a solution: doctors who don't want to agree to the rates paid by government can go entirely private.
Dr. Diane Francoeur of the Federation of Quebec Medical Specialists said that isn't much of a solution.
"It's such an easy way to not fulfill your duty. He has a duty. He's the minister of health. He has to make sure Quebecers have the care they need, publicly funded we all agree with that," said Francoeur.
Her preferred alternative is for hospitals to open up space, and give doctors access to unused rooms.
"Just give me availability, especially at the MUHC, there's lots of empty room, let us work, give us the budget," she said.
Parti Quebecois Health Critic Diane Lamarre said the FQMS could use its own money to accommodate doctors using privately-owned equipment.
"This solution is in the envelope of the specialists federation," said Lamarre, but Francoeur said that is not realistic.
"To have the magic thought, like [Jean-Francois] Lisée and Lamarre who think that physicians will pay for everything outside the hospital... Come back to earth. This is not a solution," said Francoeur.
Dr. Sahai said the government could come up with another solution: pay doctors who own their equipment, and do work outside of hospitals, an extra fee.
Or the province could increase the budget for hospitals.
"There's zero incentive for a doctor who can work as much as they want in the public system to go into a private system," said Dr. Sahai.
