Donna Anbert loves living in Laurentians.
The area, located about 150 kilometers northwest of Montreal, is idyllic: hills of dense green forests and lakes, mountains dotted with small towns and villas built for long weekends away from the city.
“The quality of life here is incredible. I wouldn’t change it for the world, “said Anbert from his home in St. Adele, Que.
But now she is considering leaving. There is only one reason: healthcare.
After years of struggling with full clinics, tracking in the city and hospitals that regularly work overcapacity, Anbert said he was likely to relocate.
“You cannot access the services. “Our clinics are a joke,” she told CBC News.
“I’m 57. I’m in good health… but later I’m not so sure I’ll get the same services I might need.”
She is not the only one who has noticed that what many say is a critical issue in the province. Municipalities and doctors say that as the Laurentians’ population grows, funding for the area’s health system is not being maintained, leaving residents in trouble.
According to census data, the population of Lawrence is growing rapidly. About 50,000 people have moved to the region since 2016. — a population increase of 7.9 percent. (The average for Quebec is 4.1 percent.)
“I see that nothing is changing,” Anbert said. “It’s just getting worse.”
A thriving population
It was a snowy Friday afternoon in December when Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs’s Peggy Drennan developed a hernia that required emergency surgery.
Her family doctor told her to go to the emergency room, but when they called in advance, they learned that there was no surgeon on duty at Laurentian Hospital in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts.
Faced with the idea of trying her luck at another hospital in the area, Drenan decided to take a different route: she crossed the provincial border to Hawkesbury, Ont, more than 80 kilometers away.
While Drenan said she thought the quality of healthcare in Lorentians was “fantastic” when you can get it, she said the problem was how difficult it was to access it.
Dr Simon-Pierre Landry, a doctor at the emergency department at Laurentian Hospital, said this was a problem that had been going on for years.
“Hospitals are not designed to accommodate such a large population,” he said. “We’ve seen jumps in the summer and at Christmas. But now it’s all year long.”
Emergency room doctor Dr Simon-Pierre Landry says funding the health system in the area does not meet the needs of a thriving population. (Radio Canada)
Some areas are more affected than others. The population of the city of Mirabel has grown by 21% in five years, an increase of almost 11,000 people.
Even the population of small towns is exploding, with the small village of Gor – with a population of 1904 in 2016 – growing by a staggering 19.9 percent.
And it doesn’t slow down. According to a report of the statistical agency of the provinceLaurentians’ population is expected to grow by another 20 percent by 2041, adding approximately more than 127,000 people to the region.
But these figures do not take into account holidaymakers who come every year. Anbert, who lives full-time, said the size of some cities is virtually doubled during the holidays.
“If you’re in your summer villa for the summer, you’re sick, you’re not going back to Montreal to do it or wherever you are. You will consult here, “she said. “Do you have a ski accident? You will be treated here.”
“This is not taken into account,” she said.
To make matters worse for the health system, the population is also rapidly aging. The same report estimates that the share of people aged 65 and over will double, rising by about 73 percent.
“We know it’s not getting better, and we don’t think the government understands how acute the problems are,” Landry said.
“It’s been a problem for years, but now it’s critical.”
Quebec AM9: 13 Overcrowded Emergency Offices Increase Delay in Laurentians’ Operations
The emergency departments of Laurentians Hospital are overcrowded and currently operating at 150 percent capacity. This has led to an extension of the already long waiting list for operations in the region. To learn more about the situation in the region, guest host Sean Lyons spoke with Dr. Pierre-Andre Clermont, head of the CISSS surgical department at Laurentians. 9:13
Chronic lack of funding
Along with other health professionals and local government officials, Landry formed the Santé Laurentides coalition, a coalition that is calling for increased health care spending from the Quebec government.
According to information obtained by CBC News, only about five percent of the budget of the Ministry of Health is set aside for the Lawrences, although the area now represents more than seven percent of the province’s population, excluding holidaymakers.
“We don’t want a neurosurgical cancer center,” Landry said. – We ask about the main things.
Saint-Jérôme Hospital, in Saint-Jérôme, Que., Often works over capacity. (Radio Canada)
He said the Quebec government could not afford to wait, especially with how slow the health care system could be.
“This is what worries me. It is already critical and since nothing is happening at the moment, it means that in three years we will be in the same place,” he said.
The CBC asked the Ministry of Health for a statement, but received no response.
Overall, Landry said the situation with new residents and an aging population, combined with the pandemic and years of chronic underfunding, had created a “perfect storm”.
Search outside for healthcare
Both Anbert and Drenan have the same advice for anyone considering moving to the Laurentians: if you want to do so, be sure to keep your doctors in town.
Anbert said she has kept her family doctor and all her specialists in Montreal and has already moved her 87-year-old mother to the city to have better access to health care.
“If there is anything that needs to be done, I will ask them to direct me to Montreal, because the waiting lists and the time to enter here are crazy,” Anbert said.
But Drennan worries about the effect it could have. Her daughter and grandchildren also recently moved to Montreal.
“They can’t find a pediatrician. They can’t get a GP. And it’s not easy in the city,” she said. “Moving to Laurentians and maintaining these urban services only exacerbates the problem there as well.
Dr Landry said he was saddened to hear that residents chose to go to Montreal or Hawkesbury instead of local hospitals.
He said this was not a choice that every Laurentian had: many could not afford to drive, and Francophones often did not see English-speaking hospitals in Ontario or Montreal as an option.
“There is a resignation that is very sad for patients who do not hope that things can improve,” he said.
“I still think things can get better. We can turn the ship over.
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