When he moved from Quebec to Montreal in the fall of 2020, Yves Gonthier lost his family doctor who was about to retire. However, he never imagined that he would be without a doctor for so long.
Yves Gonthier
▪ Septuagenarian
▪ Montreal
▪ Without a doctor for three years
“I haven’t had any follow-up for three and a half years. I have the impression that I will never have one,” says the septuagenarian who considers himself lucky to still be in good health.
Despite everything, he worries about the day he will need care.
- Listen to the interview with Dr. Marc-André Amyot, president of the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec, via QUB :
“My biggest fear is having cancer,” he says.
Yves Gonthier in the entrance hall of the office tower where he works in downtown Montreal. He has been without a doctor since he moved to the metropolis in 2020.
Photo Agence QMI, JOEL LEMAY
The man who practices law is critical of the different governments which have succeeded one another and which have not been able to resolve the problem. Yves Gonthier also denounces patients who are lucky enough to have a doctor and who do not show up for their appointments.
User fees?
To resolve the problem, he proposed the idea of a co-payment, but believed that no political party in power in Quebec would dare to undertake such a measure.
This type of system where you have to pay minimal fees for health care nevertheless exists in France, where his son lives. The latter was able to have a doctor the same day he asked for one.
The sixty-year-old also believes that it would be possible to expand access to super-nurse services. He believes that they could provide part of the medical follow-up, especially for healthy patients like him.
In recent months, he was assigned to a family medicine group in a medical clinic on Nuns’ Island. A partial solution, since you then have to manage to get an appointment and there is no medical follow-up.
Discouraged
In the meantime, the man occasionally turns to private health care, the only way to see a doctor quickly.
“Private? I use it regularly, like the other day when I hit a window in my foot. I paid $150,” he said.
A balm which, however, is not worth a family doctor in the public network.
“If I can’t have a family doctor, let me know,” he says, a little discouraged by the slowness of the system.