Thursday, March 26, 2009

Quebecers flooding Ontario hospitals







Canadians for Language Fairness Inc.


P.O. Box 40111

Bank & Hunt Club Postal Outlet

2515 Bank Street.

Ottawa, ON, K1V 0W8


Website: http://www.languagefairness.ca/ Email: clf1@sympatico.ca


March 26, 2009


This is something that our supporters have been screaming
about for years and the medical authorities have always denied it. Of course
this is not surprising as most of the medical agencies are run by
French-speakers or people who are pro-French. Those who don’t fall into those
two categories are people who dare not do anything in case they are brought up
in front of the HRC for violation of the Charter. When someone complained to
Mayor O’Brien about the number of Quebecers who cross the river to take jobs
from Ontarians, he said that his hands are tied by the Charter.


Now we see that the authorities have admitted that our
hospitals are being flooded by Quebec patients and Ontario patients are being
pushed to the back of the list. Lowell Green did an excellent show this morning
on this. CFRA’s poll this morning is on this question:


CFRA Polls (to vote, link to www.cfra.com)



Should Ontario patients be bumped down waiting lists by Quebec patients coming
to eastern Ontario hospitals? To comment, email
mornings@cfra.com


Yes - 6.48%

No - 92.2%

Other - 1.24%


Total Votes: 725






Read the article by Pauline Tam and the comments following. Some of the comments
are aggravating because it shows that Quebecers feel entitled to come to Ottawa
for services they cannot get in Quebec. Not only are we short-changing Ontario
patients who pay dearly for their healthcare but we are also denying jobs to our
nurses who find that bilingualism is a prerequisite for nursing positions. One
nurse complained to me that despite several college degrees & her nursing
qualifications, she cannot get a full-time position and when she gets the
occasional part-time positions, the French nurses make it difficult by writing
their reports entirely in French & English nurses are hampered because they have
to get the reports translated into English before they can do any follow-up.


Why are we allowing Quebec & Quebecers to do this to us?
How many Ottawa residents are willing to march about this to one of the
hospitals? If so, which one?


Kim






THE OTTAWA CITIZEN : MARCH 26, 2009




Eastern Ontario hospitals struggling with flood of Quebec patients, study finds


BY PAULINE TAM


Between 2004 and 2007, the number of visits by west Quebecers
to eastern Ontario emergency rooms jumped by 14 per cent, according to the
report released Wednesday morning by the Outaouais Health and Social Services
Agency.


OTTAWA — A flood of Quebec patients into eastern Ontario
hospitals is creating surgical backlogs, bed shortages and some of the
province’s longest emergency-room wait times, suggests a new report that, for
the first time provides a snapshot of the health-care pressures facing both
sides of the Ottawa River.


Between 2004 and 2007, the number of visits by west Quebecers
to eastern Ontario emergency rooms jumped by 14 per cent, from nearly 30,900 to
35,200 visits, according to the report released Wednesday morning by the
Outaouais Health and Social Services Agency.


The sharp increase is a result of a severe shortage of family
doctors in West Quebec, made worse by hospital overcrowding in that region.
According to the study, only 77 per cent of Outaouais residents have family
doctors, compared to 89 per cent for eastern Ontarians.


The extra burden on eastern Ontario hospitals, already
stretched to the limit, has translated into particularly long emergency-room
wait times at the Montfort Hospital and the Hawkesbury and District General
Hospital, which see a large number of Quebec patients.


In Hawkesbury, more than 30 per cent of hospitalizations are
for Quebec patients, the report indicates.


As a result, ER wait times at both hospitals can stretch up to
30 hours for the sickest patients — a delay that is nearly four times longer
than the Ontario target of eight hours for the most complex

cases.


The long-awaited report — compiled with the Champlain Local
Health Integration Network, eastern Ontario’s health-planning agency — is
considered a key tool for officials from both sides of the river, who are
attempting to determine just how much their health-care systems are affected by
the large number of Outaouais residents crossing into eastern Ontario for
treatment.


In total, Quebecers made nearly 145,000 visits to Ontario
hospitals in 2007-08, an 11-per-cent increase over the past four years. That
same year, the Quebec government paid more than $70 million to have Outaouais
residents treated in eastern Ontario.


Hospitalizations for pregnancies and baby deliveries formed
the bulk of inpatient admissions, followed by pediatrics, cardiology and
ophthalmology, the report says.


The trends reflect a shortage of medical specialists in those
fields, resulting in 169,000 such procedures being performed in eastern Ontario
last year, at a cost of more than $2.2 million to the Quebec government.


To meet growing demand, the Outaouais region needs the
equivalent of 37 full-time specialists in those medical areas, the report
estimates.


The demand is particularly acute in obstetrics given that a
team of four currently serves all of west Quebec. As a result, about 900
deliveries a year are performed in Ottawa, when only half of those require the
specialized care provided by this city’s hospitals.


According to the report, about 20 per cent of Outaouais babies
have been born in Ontario over the past nine years.


© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen






Andre

March 26, 2009 - 8:02 AM

It's about time that we Ontarians tell Quebecers where to go! Why should we be
saddled with Quebecs' problems. If these people want our services, let them pay
taxes to our government instead of crying about whatever they always cry about,
independence, bilingualism, high taxes, etc. How about getting them to pay
upfront for our health services, that will no doubt solve the problem.




Gracchus

March 26, 2009 - 7:24 AM

What I find interesting is that Gatineau residents elected a Bloc member in the
last federal election. Would not prioritizing Ontario patients over those from
Quebec be in line with Gatineau’s ideology and wishes?




Mak

March 26, 2009 - 6:55 AM

I know of clinics in N. Ont that are run by Francophones and they regularly turn
away Anglos in favour of french.






not surprised

March 25, 2009 - 10:37 PM

Quebec pays 70 million so that Quebecers can delay the system for people who
live in Ottawa and Ontario. What a deal!! For Quebec to upgrade it's health care
system to Ontario's standards would cost billions. Again, unbelievable deal. Now
when do we get a report on the percentage of Quebecers working in Ottawa
hospitals, taking jobs from those who live in the city and province, much like
our beloved federal government. Oh that's right. One has to be bilingual. Did
anyone ever think that speaking French would trump an education, experience and
a skill set in a city where 85% of the population is English speaking? And
exactly how many of these people from Quebec who use Ontario's health system as
well as those who work in it support a separatist Quebec. When do we get that
study!!






Suzanne V
March 25, 2009 - 10:25 PM

My comment is regarding the idea of putting Quebecers at the bottom of the
waiting list. I live in Quebec and the Civic Campus is where the Heart Institute
is located. If my husband wasn't put at the bottom of the waiting list, he would
be alive today.






carol

March 25, 2009 - 10:16 PM

Maybe Quebec could throw some money into west Quebec health care instead of ...
as usual....unloading their problems wherever they can....or....just whining
about it! But....hey....don't forget to hire more Language Police....let's get
our priorities now!! Jobs which have magically become designated unnecessarily
bilingual....French licence plates available to Ontario drivers...cultural
centres...and on and on.....now our hospitals.






jj

March 25, 2009 - 9:50 PM

Ontarions who pay taxes in Ontario should not have to bear the burden for this.
Priority must be given to ontarions first in Ontario hospitals unless it is an
absolute emergency medical situation and not elective surgery. .






Mark

March 25, 2009 - 8:27 PM

With all the money that the Feds pound into Quebec I'm surprised that they don't
have a state of the art facility in Gatineau already. If only us poor Ontarians
could be treated in the same way.






Jim

March 25, 2009 - 5:31 PM

Quebec only pays according to their own rates. Ontario residents have pay the
difference. Good work Dalton






me

March 25, 2009 - 4:50 PM

Do you know that only in ottawa around 500 international training doctors,that
will never will become a doctors again,because of the system?






Luc

March 25, 2009 - 4:38 PM

Ottawa and Gatineau are part of the same economic region. If Quebeckers can't
get health care in the region, they will leave and we will all suffer.






Annonymous

March 25, 2009 - 3:43 PM

Why can't priority be given to people who reside in Ontario? i.e. Quebecers
should automatically be put at the bottom of a waiting list.






ED

March 25, 2009 - 3:37 PM

I wonder if a person from Ontario would be given the same respect & attention in
Quebec's hospital that we give them here in Ontario and bilingual service to
boot.






Joyce M

March 25, 2009 - 2:54 PM

Our hospitals should not be tied up by out of province patients and our system
over taxed and can't look after our own local people from Ontario. I would not
even consider going into Quebec to a Dr or hospital as my choice is to live in
Ontario, so why doesn't the same apply.






EEE

March 25, 2009 - 2:54 PM

Why is this not surprising? It was the only reason I could think of, to account
for the wait times, delays, etc. Perhaps an Outaouais district health authority?
Or at least a mechanism for ensuring people get the service they pay for, no
matter what side of the river they are on.





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