QUEBEC POLITICIANS COST LIVES

ABOUT A YEAR AGO, 2000 PATIENTS DIED IN QUEBEC BECAUSE POLITICIANS CUT VITAL HOSPITAL BUDGETS.  DUE TO LACK OF EQUIPMENT AND STAFF, TREATMENTS HAD TO BE DELAYED UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE TO SAVE THEIR LIVES.

IT IS GOING ON TO THIS DAY. CRITICAL TESTS INCLUDING CANCER BIOPSIES ARE BEING DELAYED WHILE PATIENTS PRAY FOR THEIR LIVES.

Phyllis Carter

The hospital's administration does not necessarily agree with this interpretation, but these points reflect what many doctors at the hospital have told The Gazette:

• The vocation of the Jewish General seems to be changing from being a regional centre of excellence to more of a community hospital that will service local patients.
• The number of robotic surgeries authorized has been cut in half in some departments, to being almost entirely forbidden except for exceptional cases in others, despite the hospital having used several million fundraising dollars to buy the robotic equipment and being pioneers in this new technology.
• Some of the new-generation — and more costly — cancer drugs aren't allowed as a first line of treatment at the Jewish, only as a second line.
• Prescriptions from doctors at the Jewish for some treatments are deemed too expensive and may be rejected by the hospital pharmacy.
• Some longer, more intricate surgeries — even instances of life-prolonging surgeries — are being postponed because they are too costly. Smaller, more efficient surgeries are being encouraged so as not to incur excessive costs in the short term.
• Capsule endoscopies — a less invasive technique that uses a pill camera to take pictures of the digestive tract — have been reduced or outright banned due to the cost.
• The number of nurses in the oncology clinic will be cut starting in January, and the clinic will have to see 25- to 30-per-cent fewer patients.
• The use of paper has been dramatically reduced, which doctors say makes it difficult to keep up to date with ongoing test results, which are no longer sent to their offices.
• Although at first the limitation on seeing patients once applied only to people from 450-area-code districts, now it is much stricter, meaning even on-island patients can be redirected. The first course of action for consults coming into the hospital is for the patient's address to be Googled to determine if they have a hospital closer to home that could provide appropriate care. If so, the consult often never even reaches the doctor at the Jewish. If it does, and the doctor consents to see the patient, doctors says they are being reprimanded by the administration, which is notified through a computer screening system if a patient from outside a recommended catchment area has been seen.
• Even for cancer treatment, people living on the West Island or east-end Montreal will be rerouted close to home. They still may be operated on at the Jewish, but are then directed to a local hospital for more standard follow-up treatments, which doctors fear can interrupt the continuity of treatment. Also, doctors say, while it might be convenient to be treated closer to home, it is not necessarily true that the same expertise exists as at a tertiary care cancer centre such as the Jewish.
• Doctors say patients are being deprived of their legal right to choose where they want to be treated.

kseidman@montrealgazette.com.