The private telemedicine industry in Canada is booming. This sector has seen tremendous growth during the pandemic, where some suppliers have seen their turnover quintuple in two years. However, the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS) fears that this increase will contribute to the deterioration of the services offered by the public system.
“It’s not telemedicine in itself that is worrying, because it will improve access to services for many people. What is worrying is really the private telemedicine industry, ”said Anne Plourde, researcher at IRIS and author of a report on the private virtual care industry which will be published on Thursday.
Since the start of the pandemic, the private telemedicine sector has seen “dramatic growth,” she says. For example, the revenues of the Montreal telemedicine company Dialogue Technologies de la Santé inc. increased from 3.6 to 20.7 million dollars between the 1er quarter of 2020 and that of 2022, an increase of more than 470% in two years.
The Canadian company WELL Health, for its part, has seen its quarterly revenues jump from 7.4 to 126.5 million dollars in the last three years, a growth of more than 1600%.
Loss of jobs
This marked growth of the private telemedicine industry is leading to massive and rapid hiring of health professionals, to the detriment of the public sector, argues Ms.me Plunder.
To be able to provide those services, nurses, social workers and doctors are no longer available or are less available to work in the public sector.
Anne Plourde, researcher at IRIS
Although the total number of healthcare professionals currently employed by private virtual care providers is not known, compensation spending at several telemedicine companies has grown between 200% and 900% over the past two years, the report reveals. ‘IRIS.
“This increase shows that these companies are engaged in recruitment operations that risk depriving the public network of valuable professional resources,” the report reads.
The poorest
According to Damien Contandriopoulos, professor at the University of Victoria School of Nursing, “IRIS is right to try to draw attention to this sector”.
What is happening in online care will potentially change the way services are delivered in the public system in general.
Damien Contandriopoulos, professor at the University of Victoria School of Nursing
“I tend to agree with the argument that the more doctors we are going to have who decide to practice online, the fewer we are going to have in the offices,” he said.
Furthermore, M.me Plourde considers that the private sector of telemedicine “leaves aside a whole section of the population”, in particular the people “the most vulnerable like the elderly and the most disadvantaged on the socio-economic level”, she says.