Nancy Picard is not angry. Her mother, Louisette Gignac, died last year of late-diagnosed breast cancer. The lady who was on the cusp of her 79th birthday had not had a family doctor since 2019.
Nancy Picard and Louisette Gignac
▪ 55 years old and 78 years old
▪ Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier
▪ Without a doctor for four years
“My mother was completely abandoned,” said the 55-year-old woman, “no one wanted to take her.” In addition to cancer, his mother had heart problems and bronchial problems.
- Listen to the interview with Dr. Marc-André Amyot, president of the Federation of General Practitioners of Quebec, via QUB :
To renew her medications, Nancy Picard turned to a specialized nurse practitioner clinic in the Saint-Roch district of Quebec.
Nancy Picard carefully keeps this photo in her phone. She believes that her mother was abandoned by not finding her a family doctor for more than four years.
DIDIER DEBUSSCHERE/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Despite everything, Mme Gignac was independent and his daughter was not overly worried. That’s why she didn’t think to ask her mother if she had continued to have her mammograms to detect possible cancer, even though she no longer had a family doctor.
However, everything changed when she complained of bleeding from the end of one breast. Nancy Picard herself took steps to have her seen by a doctor. She quickly had one of her breasts removed to try to contain the disease.
Too late
However, it was too late. She died on February 9, 2023. Without ever having obtained a new family doctor.
“Before her cancer, she needed care. He needed a doctor,” underlines Nancy Picard.
Since then, she has taken care of her father-in-law who also has several health problems which notably required psychiatric hospitalization.
However, he too does not have a family doctor at the age of 77.
“I’m the one who has to act as a doctor,” she confides, adding that without the follow-ups she does, he would probably be on the street.
Nancy Picard with her father-in-law, for whom she takes care of medical follow-ups. He also has not had a family doctor since 2019.
Courtesy Nancy Picard
Nancy Picard managed to find a family doctor after several steps. However, she does not understand why people with health problems as acute as those of her mother and stepfather are left without any medical follow-up from a general practitioner.