2023-05-23 22:42:06
We registered her with the access window for a family doctor and, during my pregnancy, I checked with my family doctor […] but they are all overwhelmed
constate Mme Babin.
For the couple, the $245 disbursed for each visit makes it possible to have peace of mind
. Health is priceless
adds his spouse.
Similar story south of Montreal, in Montérégie.
During our visit to the Praxis clinic in La Prairie, a senior had no hesitation in paying to get an appointment quickly with a specialized nurse practitioner (SNP) because of a urinary tract infection.
We don’t bring that [l’argent] in Paradise!
replied tit for tat Louisette Parent.
No doctor in a family medicine group (GMF) was available, and neither she nor her accompanying daughter wanted to wait five to six hours in a hospital emergency room.
645,000 patients waiting
It must be said that many families do not yet have access to a family doctor or a health professional in GMF.
There are 645,000 of these patients across Quebec, including nearly 250,000 in Montérégie, Lanaudière and the Laurentians.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, 87% to 90% of the population of the crown of Montreal have access to a front-line service, including the front-line access window (GAP).
In the greater Montreal area, private clinics of specialized nurse practitioners are multiplying. The Praxis chain, for example, has opened five clinics over the past six years. They come to fill a lack of services, where the public sector does not provide on demand. Reporting by Davide Gentile.
A growing market
As Praxis CEO Geneviève Dubé explains, it is certain that in the north and south crowns of Montreal, access to care is still more complicated
.
Praxis General Manager, Geneviève Dubé
Photo : Radio-Canada / Ivanoh Demers
Over the years, she has seen the evolution of the clientele.
People who are professionals, retirees, people who have higher means, some who have lower means and who are saving to come to us because they do not have access to the public system for health services
explains Ms. Dubé.
Since 2016, the company has seized the opportunity to gradually open five private family health clinics around Montreal.
Efforts have also been made to broaden the field of practice of IPS to provide an alternative to 377 GMF in Quebec where the health insurance card is used.
Since 2021, the IPS may, among other things, diagnose illnesses, prescribe examinations and medication, determine medical treatments and carry out pregnancy follow-ups without the supervision of a doctor.
38 IPS at Praxis
IPS on the front line, Estelle Fournier made the choice in 2020 to leave the public network for the private sector.
I was frustrated from the point of view of the working conditions and, often, I had the impression to the public, sometimes, of being there to benefit the doctors
she says.
Estelle Fournier, one of the 38 IPS at Praxis
Photo : Ivanoh Demers
Ms. Fournier is not the only one to have made this choice. Praxis now has around one hundred employees, including 38 IPS and 7 doctors.
The company belongs to the Sedna Health Group. Owned by European interests, Groupe Santé Sedna presents itself in Quebec as the leading partner of the State in the management and delivery of health care and services.
The Group has more than 4,000 employees working in long-term care, private accommodation, rehabilitation and family health clinics. It is directed by a former CEO of a health establishment and counts among its administrators the former minister Michel Clair.
Other private clinics offer the services ofIPS on dating sites.
In the meantime, the public network is still looking to recruit IPS in one of the four clinics opened in recent months in the Montreal area.
Radio-Canada recently revealed that these clinics welcome a third of the 650 patients planned each week.
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