The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) does not claim to be able to quantify the exact number of patients who postpone or cancel their operation and contribute to the swelling of waiting lists. But the new directive aimed at removing these patients from the lists after two postponements is considered necessary for “efficient” management in surgery.
“We do not have the exact statistics of the number of patients removed (sic) from the waiting list for the reasons mentioned. With the systems currently in place, the MSSS is not able to quantify the exact number of patients, ”the MSSS Communications Department indicated on Wednesday, in reaction to a request made by The duty to know the extent of the phenomenon.
In its response, the MSSS said it was acting on the basis of reports from establishments which indicated “on several occasions that this prevented them from carrying out sound management of waiting lists”.
To this end, since November 2, establishments have been asked to apply a new directive aimed at removing from waiting lists patients who have already missed or postponed their elective surgery or diagnostic examination or who have twice declared unavailable for a maximum period of six months.
The duty was able to obtain figures from a few establishments, in particular the CISSS of Laval (9%) and Montérégie-Ouest (2%), which seem to show that surgical cancellations attributable to patients are marginal. In Montreal, for example, the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) has identified 45 patient withdrawals, postponements or absences from their appointment for an operation out of the more than 7,500 procedures performed since April 2021 at the Montreal General Hospital. and at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Questioned on this file during a press scrum in Quebec, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, somewhat evaded the question, and indicated that he was not yet able to “quantify the gain in efficiency” of this measure. “We have not yet found the nurses to do this catching up,” he said, referring to the problem of long waiting lists caused by the delays accumulated during the pandemic.
On Tuesday, user representatives regretted, however, that this directive unfairly penalizes certain patients, while the majority of postponements and cancellations are more likely to be caused by hospitals and linked to administrative or structural problems.
On Wednesday, the liberal leader, Dominique Anglade, also a health critic for his party, said that once again, the CAQ “is looking for the culprits, and it is now the fault of the patients”.
“Instead of announcing that they will take people off the waiting list themselves, instead of making cosmetic changes,” she said, “can they take all possible steps to improve the organization of the system? health as well as communication between the health system and Quebecers? “
As for the health critic of Quebec solidaire, the member for Rosemont, Vincent Marissal, he said he was surprised that such a measure was not based on convincing figures.
“If this is a frequent problem with snowbirds, that we rather review the rule of six months of non-availability, rather than eject patients from a list. If it is more a case of force majeure, we can not stupidly punish everyone. We don’t have the figures, ”he lamented.
“It seems rather to be an accounting and punitive logic, a bit like the one we wanted to impose on doctors. Hospitals can unilaterally cancel an operation the day before, but patients can’t? “