Clinic closure leaves kids adrift
If anyone needed an object lesson in why private involvement in medical services is a flawed idea, the sudden closure of a private children’s clinic this month is leaving 300,000 patients without recourse because of the bankruptcy of the parent company. Irony is that parents probably felt it would be more reliable than the public system.
JP 19:33 on 2024-01-27 Permalink
Clicking on that link and reading that article led me down a rabbit hole of other articles (had no idea the walk-in clinic at Westmount Square also closed. I got help there for an important issue a couple of years before the pandemic. I actually miss the days of real walk-in clinics, even if it meant lining up at 6 or 7 am. At least you knew there was a way. No wonder ERs are crowded. I actually feel kind of helpless these days and am glad I don’t currently have any issues.
Nicholas 13:37 on 2024-01-28 Permalink
This is another great example of CBC Montreal copying a RC story, and badly. The CBC story they have 125 employees, and is one of the largest medical groups in the province. 125 is tiny, that’s like 3 clinics (the Glen location has 50). That’s also 2,400 patients per employee per year, a huge number even for walk ins. The RC story says 125 not including doctors, saying there are 175 doctors. That makes way more sense.
Also worth pointing out that nearly all family doctor clinics are private, in that they are owned by doctors or investors, but most are paid for by RAMQ, and this has been true for decades. This group has public(ly insured) clinics (and privately paid ones), and ELNA, which might buy it out, does too. The only fully public health care (in that people are government workers, rather than people who charge the government for reimbursement) is hospitals and CIUSSS and their progeny (like CLSCs).