Quebec’s health authority, Santé Québec, is working on a plan to allow patients to seek private healthcare for some services while still being reimbursed by the government.
The move is aimed at tackling the province’s growing surgical wait times, with over 150,000 people currently waiting for surgery, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.
Paul Brunet, president of the Quebec Council for Patients' Rights, emphasized the necessity of incorporating private healthcare to support the public system, which he said is overwhelmed and in urgent need of relief.
“We need the private sector until we have a strong public system and, right now, that is not the case,” Brunet said.
Santé Québec has acknowledged the challenge of implementing such a system and confirmed that efforts are already underway.
“We [Santé Québec] aim to finalize our work as quickly as possible. However, this won’t be easy, as we are establishing processes for which there is no precedent,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement to CTV News.
The plan includes coverage for specific surgeries and specialist consultations, which many patients struggle to access within the public system.
For Ingrid Kovitch, Chair of the MUHC Patients' Committee, the change cannot come soon enough.
“Patients can’t see a doctor, can’t get an X-ray, can’t get a follow-up—they’re put on a wait list, and, after a long wait, they get a consultation with a specialist," she said. “But, even then, they may have to wait another one to two years before seeing a surgeon who will then place them on a surgical waitlist.”
Kovitch knows firsthand the consequences of long wait times. She waited 16 months for a double hip replacement, a surgery that finally happened in January. She described the ordeal as physically and emotionally exhausting.
“There was pain and desperation — I was unable to do many of my activities and there was also the overwhelming inability to sleep,” she explained. “All this waiting also led to medical complications.”
Currently, over 900,000 people in Quebec are waiting to see a specialist, with 63 per cent having been on the list for over a year. Brunet believes that reducing this backlog will ease pressure across the entire healthcare system.
“By addressing these wait times, we can reduce the strain on the system, on employees, and on all caregivers,” he said.
Santé Québec has not provided a timeline for when the new measures will be implemented.
