“Where are we going to go?” | La Presse

“It doesn’t make sense to close a clinic like that!” Lise Riopel, 86, can’t believe it: the Polyclinique Pointe-aux-Trembles, which she has been going to for 30 years, will permanently cease operations on July 31. “We’re so used to it. It’s really disappointing. Where are we going to go?”

Some 6,400 patients are being followed by family doctors and front-line specialized nurse practitioners (IPS-PL) at the Polyclinique Pointe-aux-Trembles. They will now have to travel to another clinic in Montreal to see them. Unless they give up their general practitioner and register at the family doctor access window.

Lise Riopel, for her part, will follow her doctor, regardless of her new practice location. Her son drives her to his medical appointments. “I’m just waiting for my boy,” she says with a smile, standing in front of the clinic, her hands with manicured red nails resting on her walker.

The closure of the medical centre, which is next to a Radiomedic radiology clinic, will leave a void in the eastern end of the island of Montreal, according to the D^D Léa Langevin-Thibodeau, co-head of the family medicine group (GMF) Polyclinique Pointe-aux-Trembles.

“Because of highways 40 and 25, it’s a bit of an isolated area,” explains the doctor on maternity leave. People who don’t have a car stay in the area to get care. As proof, patients registered with the Polyclinique’s doctors are loyal to them: the GMF’s attendance rate is around 90%.

Marie-Eve Rivard’s daughter often visits the Polyclinique’s walk-in clinic. The 23-year-old, who has a congenital neuromuscular disease, does not have a family doctor. “We’re left high and dry with no services,” laments Marie-Eve Rivard.

Lack of doctors

The Polyclinique Pointe-aux-Trembles is closing its doors because it is “not financially viable,” according to its owner, Tootelo, an information technology company that owns Bonjour santé and four other medical clinics in Montreal. “But above all, it is not sustainable for doctors,” says Tootelo CEO Annie Blanchette.

The GMF has eight doctors, four of whom are of retirement age (three of them are over 70). “I have four doctors who are on the rise, but who cannot [couvrir] opening hours in the evenings and weekends, she said. With four, it becomes impossible.”

Tootelo bought the Polyclinique Pointe-aux-Trembles in March 2022 from a retiring doctor. Annie Blanchette maintains that at the time, the financial situation was “already difficult.” Over the past two years, several doctors have left the Polyclinique to retire or work elsewhere.

Result? The medical center collects less money than before in office expenses from general practitioners. And since fewer patients are treated, the Polyclinique receives less subsidies from the Quebec government under the GMF program.

Operating costs (rent, salaries, medical supplies, etc.) have “exploded,” according to Annie Blanchette.

Difficult to recruit in Pointe-aux-Trembles

The Polyclinique Pointe-aux-Trembles is struggling to recruit and retain doctors, according to the CEO. Attracting general practitioners is difficult in the east end of the island of Montreal, according to the sources consulted. The local service network (RLS) of Rivière-des-Prairies–Anjou–Montréal-Est is also the only one in the metropolis where positions for new doctors are still vacant. Several positions for doctors already in practice are also available.

“It is also in the interest of doctors to work close to where they live,” explains Dr.^r Maxime Tétreault, local table leader of the RLS of Rivière-des-Prairies–Anjou–Montréal-Est at the Regional Department of General Medicine (DRMG) of Montreal.

There seem to be few people living in Pointe-aux-Trembles. “That poses a challenge in terms of attractiveness,” says Dr.^r Tétreault: Competition is also fierce between clinic conglomerates to attract candidates, he emphasizes.

“Not all medical clinics are equal,” he notes. “There are some that haven’t been renovated in 30 years, that charge more office fees, others that charge less. There are some that have triage by a nursing assistant before appointments, others don’t.”

Annie Blanchette acknowledges that office costs at Polyclinique Pointe-aux-Trembles are higher than at some other clinics. Tootelo charges family doctors 20% of their compensation from the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (for example, $20,000 if the general practitioner bills $100,000). “There are other networks that offer more competitive rates,” she says.

The CEO assures that she has explored all scenarios to keep the Polyclinic alive – for example, converting the medical center into an IPS-PL clinic.

Tootelo now says it is trying to “save as many jobs as possible” by transferring employees (administrative agents, in particular) to its other clinics. Six of the eight doctors will practice at the Hochelaga medical centre. The other two will move to the Polyclinique Levasseur – owned by Tootelo – in Saint-Léonard. As for the IPS-PL, their new home port has not yet been confirmed.

At the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, they say they “support” Tootelo so that staff can maintain “their activities on the Pointe-de-l’Île territory.” “Nevertheless, it must be considered that the GMFs are private companies with whom we collaborate in order to promote access to front-line medical services,” they state in an email.

Bruno Pasquino says he is “very disappointed” by this closure. “I know everyone here [à la Polyclinique] ! » For 15 years, the Champion Courrier employee has been transporting samples between this clinic and the hospital. He is also followed by an IPS-PL and a doctor from the GMF. “I have a car, but there are people [patients] here who don’t have a car. How are they going to get there?

It is also a mourning for the D^D Langevin-Thibodeau. “A lot” of the administrative staff and nurses had been working at the clinic for a long time. “It’s a tight-knit team. It’s really heartbreaking that they have to separate.”