The supercliniques to the rescue emergency

VAT New

Friday, 9 February 2018 22:48

UPDATE
Friday, 9 February 2018 22:48

Look at this article

Some 16 % of Quebecers do not have a family doctor and for those who do have one, it can be extremely difficult to consult when one is ill.

It is this which in part explains the success of the supercliniques. Since their creation, they have enabled hundreds of thousands of people to avoid to fall back on plan B: go to the emergency department.

The superclinique Queen Elizabeth Montreal opened its doors last September. Previously, it was a group of family medicine with 30 000 registered patients and 25 physicians, but limited hours of 9 h to 17 h.

It is now available 12 hours per day, 7 days on 7, and offers samples, medical imaging, specialty consultation.

“We have experienced an increase in visits, roughly 25 %, since the superclinique,” says Dr. Mark Roper of the GMF Queen Elizabeth.

In this superclinique, 13, 000 patients who do not have a general practitioner have already been seen, not counting the 17 000 others who were not enrolled in the group family medicine.

In announcing the establishment of 50 supercliniques in Quebec by the end of 2018, Gaétan Barrette wanted to decrease the pressure on emergencies.

According to the ministry of Health, 28 supercliniques existing have provided, in the last year, 585 000 consultations to non-enrolled patients in their GMF, including 269 000 who do not have family physicians.

“There are in certain regions, especially in Montreal, in the city centre, it has a rate of… of patients, orphans as that of 40 %”, adds Dr. Roper.

If one includes patients who were already enrolled in these GMF, it gets to more than 1.3 million visits. Almost one-quarter of these patients already have a family doctor, but they chose to go in a superclinique and this would not necessarily be because their gp was not available.