Doctors worried amid rising number of patients being transferred elsewhere in western Quebec
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Dozens of patients in western Quebec were transferred elsewhere for medical care last year, raising concerns that Outaouais residents could be at increased risk if they are seriously injured in a crash.
In 2025, approximately 100 patients – an estimated number from the CISSS de l’Outaouais (CISSSO due to lack of reliable data) – who should have had surgery in the region were referred to Ottawa or Montreal due to a shortage of vascular and plastic surgeons.
Dr. Ricardo Ruz, President of L’Association de Chirurgie Vasculaire et Endovascular du Québec And a vascular surgeon at Cite-de-la-Sante hospital in Laval, Que., said his group has been able to join forces with seven hospitals in Montreal and provide on-call coverage for urgent cases coming from the Outaouais.
“This is unprecedented,” he told Radio-Canada in a French-language interview.
Ruiz warned that transferring patients could have a significant impact on their health, leading to complications – or even death.
According to Carine D’Auteuil, president of the ICU, it is also hard on the health care system as a whole, because patients who are transferred also have to be accompanied by a nurse. Syndicate of businessmen works as a professionalA local nurses union.
He told Radio-Canada that taking a nurse away from the hospital creates more work for those left there.
The last vascular surgeon left the Outaouais last year
Dr. Geneviève Gagnon, medical director of CISSSO, said transferring patients is not ideal, especially in a region like the Outaouais, which has more than 400,000 people.
“We would like to have vascular and plastic surgeons on site to limit long trips because it is difficult (for patients),” he said in French.
But one of the problems in the region is that there has been no vascular surgeon in the Outaouais since last August.
There is also a shortage of physicians who can perform plastic surgery and maxillofacial procedures – a special type of dentistry that involves jaw repair or cleft palate surgery.
According to CISSSO, there is only one plastic surgeon and two – soon to be three – maxillofacial surgeons in the region.
Ruiz said, “We are still waiting for more significant involvement from Sainte-Québec. We want them to come up with solutions, not the other way around.” “For now, I have provided all the solutions.”
Santé Québec confirmed that an emergency response plan is in place.
In a French-language statement, the agency said it is in “ongoing discussions” to provide safe services at all times in the Outaouais and to ensure that existing service routes are fluid, efficient and staffed.
Yet, despite these efforts, Ruiz said he is disappointed with the province’s health ministry, as he believes it is not demonstrating enough leadership to restore medical specialties in the western part of the province.
“On several occasions, they have been berating me, saying, ‘Look, you are the one leading the charge, let’s sort this out,'” he said, adding that it seemed they expected him to work for free to solve their problems.
“Well, no, it doesn’t work like that.”
Concern about transfers
For example, there are also fears about the consequences of a serious car accident in the Outaouais.
D’Auteuil says if a seriously injured person needs to be transferred to Ottawa or Montreal, there are concerns both for the patient — who may have to travel long distances to get urgent care — and for the local hospital that has lost the nurse who was now traveling with the injured person.
But CISSSO disagrees on the extent of potential problems.
Gagnon said that with no vascular surgeons in the Outaouais, patients needing urgent care may have to be transferred to Ottawa, or Montreal if their care could take a day or two.
And while there are concerns about traumatic cases right now, Gagnon believes the Outaouais is capable of handling them.
“There’s no need to worry,” she said.
CISSSO has hired a new general surgeon who specializes in trauma, Gagnon said, and there are also discussions underway to recruit more specialized physicians and potentially provide remote medical consultations.
