Outaouais doctors demand action on health woes

A group of more than 70 Outaouais doctors has signed a letter calling for the public to rise up and demand that the province improve access to health care services in the region, which they say is the worst in Quebec.

"This needs to change and together we can get there," said the letter, published in French in the newspaper Le Droit Wednesday. "The Outaouais needs to put itself on the map! The money is there. Ask and you will receive."

The letter said the Outaouais needs new and functional emergency rooms and better access to both family doctors and specialists.

However, it has received nothing but crumbs while Quebec is spending hundreds of millions to billions on health facilities in Quebec City and Montreal, allege the 73 doctors who signed the letter. They include urologist Dr. Claude Bouchard, who wrote a similar letter in April of last year and who said she will continue to call publicly for changes until those changes start happening.

The most recent letter comes a year after Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard gave the region a special status in recognition of the problems caused by its proximity to Ontario, where wages for doctors and nurses are higher. With that came $20 million to invest in equipment and higher wages for nurses and doctors.

Dr. Guy Morissette, head of the Outaouais health agency, said the money is helping and the situation is not as bad as the doctors are making it out to be.

"I agree with the difficulties we have but we have been improving over the past year," he said. "And also the other thing is it takes some time before you see effects of what you are doing."

But Gerald Savoie, CEO of Ottawa's bilingual Montfort Hospital, said he's noticed more Quebecers crossing the Ottawa River when they need to see a doctor.

That may be a sign that they've lost faith in the Outaouais health system, he said, and that isn't good for Ottawa either.

"It is pushing stress on a system that's already stressed," he said. "We're already at wait times that are not necessarily where they should be."