Doctors worried amid rise in western Quebec patients being transferred elsewhere

Dozens of western Quebec patients were transferred elsewhere for medical care last year, leading to concerns that Outaouais residents could be at increased risk if they’re seriously injured in an accident.

In 2025, around 100 patients — an approximate number from the CISSS de l’Outaouais (CISSSO) because of a lack of reliable data — who should have undergone surgeries in the region were sent to Ottawa or Montreal because of a shortage of vascular and plastic surgeons.

Dr. Ricardo Ruz, president of the L’Association de chirurgie vasculaire et endovasculaire du Québec and a vascular surgeon at the Cité-de-la-Santé Hospital in Laval, Que., said his group has been able to get seven hospitals in Montreal to join forces and take turns providing on-call coverage for urgent cases coming out of the Outaouais.

“That’s unprecedented,” he told Radio-Canada in a French-language interview.

Ruz cautions that having to transfer patients can have significant effects on their health, leading to complications — or even death.

It’s also hard on the health care system as a whole, because patients who are transferred have to be accompanied by a nurse, according to Karine D’Auteuil, president of the Syndicat des professionnelles en soins de l’Outaouais, a local nurses’ union.

Taking a nurse away from a hospital creates more work for those who remain, she told Radio-Canada.

Last vascular surgeon left the Outaouais last year

Patient transfers aren’t ideal, especially in a region like the Outaouais where there are more than 400,000 people, said Dr. Geneviève Gagnon, CISSSO’s medical director.

“What we would like is to have vascular and plastic surgeons on-site to limit long journeys because it’s difficult [for patients],” she said in French.

But one of the issues plaguing the region is that there hasn’t been a vascular surgeon in the Outaouais since last August.

There’s also a shortage of physicians who can perform plastic surgeries and maxillofacial procedures — a specialized type of dentistry that involves jaw repairs or cleft palate surgeries.

According to CISSSO, there’s only one plastic surgeon in the region and two — soon to be three — maxillofacial surgeons.

“We’re still waiting for a more substantial involvement from Santé Quebec. We want them to come up with solutions, not the other way around,” said Ruz. “Right now, I’m the one who has provided all the solutions.”

Santé Quebec confirmed that an emergency response plan is in place.

In a French-language statement, the agency said it’s in “ongoing discussions” to offer safe services in the Outaouais “at all times and to ensure that the existing service pathways are fluid, efficient, and staffed.”

Yet, despite these efforts, Ruz said he’s disappointed with the province’s health ministry, because he believes it isn’t demonstrating sufficient leadership to restore medical specialties in the western part of the province.

“On several occasions, they’ve been giving me the runaround, telling me, ‘Look, you’re the one leading this charge, let’s get this sorted out,'” he said, adding that they appear to expect him to work for free to solve their problems.

“Well, no, it doesn’t work like that.”

Concerns over transfers

There are also fears about the consequences of, for example, a serious car crash in the Outaouais.

D’Auteuil says if someone who’s seriously injured needs to be transferred to Ottawa or Montreal, there are concerns for both the patient — who could have to travel long distances for urgent care — and for the local hospital that’s lost the nurse that’s now travelling with that injured person.

But CISSSO disagrees on the extent of the potential problems.

Gagnon said that with no vascular surgeon in the Outaouais, patients requiring urgent care may have to be transferred to Ottawa, or Montreal if their care can wait 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, adding there also are discussions underway to recruit more specialized physicians and potentially offer remote medical consultations.