Quebec health minister suggests transferring surgeries to private sector after a year’s wait

Patients waiting more than a year for surgery could soon be treated in the private sector with Quebec picking up the bill.

A patient who has been waiting a year for surgery in Quebec’s public health care system could be transferred to the private sector at the government’s expense, according to a brief prepared by Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé and presented to cabinet last July.

The document, which was recently made public, led to the pre-publication of the Regulation respecting access to surgical services.

The regulation has not been approved by the cabinet.

In his brief, Dubé points out that wait times for surgeries increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, many patients found themselves in situations where wait times “exceed the prescribed time limit for obtaining surgery.”

According to Dubé’s plan, the first step would be to try to schedule a patient’s surgery with their attending physician at the original public health facility.

The second step would be to try to find a slot with another doctor in the same facility or another public hospital.

After one year, if the patient is still waiting for surgery, “the user will be offered the option of consulting a non-participating doctor and a non-participating (specialized medical centre) that are competent and suitably equipped to perform the surgery in question.”

In such cases, the fees of the doctor performing the surgery will be covered by the government.

Travel expenses may also be covered for patients in certain situations.

On Thursday morning, Santé Québec confirmed the minister’s plan, but did not specify whether offers to transfer patients to the private sector would be made only after a one-year wait.

Additionally, Dubé notes that recourse to the private sector was a “transitional measure that will disappear” as access times decrease.

He has often repeated that the private sector must complement the public system, a thought echoed by Santé Québec.

In December 2024, the minister announced that he was expanding the list of operations that could be performed in private clinics at no cost to patients.

– This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 16, 2024.