New fix for healthcare
Just as the police periodically announce new measures against internal racism, the Quebec healthcare system periodically announces new ways to make healthcare more accessible, in this case, assigning every resident to a CLSC.
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Kate
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Joey 11:29 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
I assume the only way this works in practice is that you will only be allowed to go to one CLSC (maybe not the one you’d like too) and you will never be able to get an appointment.
Kate 12:37 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
I was wondering about that. I’m in generally good health, but for various reasons have been to 4 different CLSCs over the past couple of years. Some are much better run than others – you can feel it as soon as you walk in. Some are working despite poor layouts in old buildings, but I think it’s also the culture that has developed in each one that has a particular vibe.
The Gazette says that they will be operating like school boards which is an odd simile given that most of our school boards have been abolished.
Mozai 12:38 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
It’s already the case that my family doctor gets punished if I go to the wrong walk-in clinic or CLSC.
Kate 13:33 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
How are they punished? And did they explain this to you, warning you not to stray?
Kevin 13:36 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
Before governments announce these plans, they need to spend time figuring out the massive advertising and education campaigns needed so people know when to go to which place for which service.
jeather 15:14 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
They are fined if you go to the wrong clinic. And maybe if you go to the ER for a bad reason, I can’t remember.
Mozai 17:09 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
Kate, I don’t exactly know. I went to the walk-in clinic I went to before I had a family doctor for some non-urgent care on a weekend. Next time I saw my family doctor was a few months later, and she explained to me she got in trouble with the government because I didn’t go to the clinic that she was attached to, and could I please only use this clinic else she will get in trouble again. I forgot, went to a different place, and a week later I got a phone call from the administration at St.Mary’s Family Hospital telling me the government of Quebec asked them didn’t come to them and fined them for it, so please only come to this clinic.
I actually went there today (Saturday) for something non-urgent, and found they are closed on week-ends. So either I have to miss work to get non-urgent care, or I go somewhere else, they get scolded and fined. I worry if I cause them flak with the government, they’ll decide it’s better business to strike me from their patient rolls and I”ll be without a family doctor again.
MtlWeb 17:35 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
I seem to remember that establishing CLSCs as a central, triage-style, postal-code based, hub of preventative and therapeutic medical services, was the focal point of the mid-90s reforms of Jean Rochon, who argued for a shift of our system towards outpatient care. His vision was to allocate resources, human and monetary, to augment the usage of day-surgeries and community-based local healthcare services, such as home care and CLSCs as a concept to minimize hospital stays and thus free up beds. Then again, those freed up beds led to several Montreal hospitals being closed as thousands of those beds were transferred to CHSLDs.
Kate 21:19 on 2026-03-28 Permalink
Going back to the CLSCs feels like something has come full circle. I remember someone telling me that at one time people from elsewhere were very impressed by the CLSC system, but they haven’t been of much interest to our politicians for awhile.
Kevin 00:22 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
Mozai
The walk-in clinic at St. Mary’s is open from 9 am to 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
https://www.ciusss-ouestmtl.gouv.qc.ca/en/facilities/university-family-medicine-groups-u-fmg/st-marys-family-medicine-centre-u-fmg/
Ian 18:45 on 2026-03-29 Permalink
While this is true, if you actually want to be seen make sure you go as early as possible because it fills up fast. As one of the only walk-in family clinics it is very much in demand.
Tim 08:50 on 2026-03-30 Permalink
@Kevin: I would not call the clinic at St. Mary’s a walk-in.
From the website: “Services at St. Mary’s University Family Medicine Group are for patients who have a Family Physician or a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (nurse practitioner) at the clinic, with the exception of Lactation Consultant Services and the Youth Clinic which are available to the general population.”